More than 16,000 car accidents occur in the United States every single day. Due to those accidents, approximately 3 million drivers and passengers are injured every year.
Of the injuries you can sustain from a car accident, back injuries are one of the most common. The type of back injury you have depends on several factors, such as the force of impact, whether you were wearing a seatbelt, where you were sitting in the vehicle, and your overall health.
One factor surrounding injuries from a car accident is that you may not even know that you were injured until later. That is because the release of adrenaline following an incident may mask pain symptoms. That is why it is important to have yourself evaluated by a healthcare professional after being involved in a car accident, even if you feel fine.
Common Back Injuries from Car Accidents
The spine is divided into three regions: the cervical spine (neck), thoracic spine (middle), and lumbar spine (lower back). The back can be injured in a car accident particularly in the following ways:
Herniated Discs
Each set of two adjacent vertebrae in your spine are separated by a disc, which serves as a protective cushion and enables the back to twist and bend. A very common back injury in an accident is a herniated disc, where the jelly-like internal tissue of a disc herniates, or pushes out, of the harder exterior.
This tissue can then cause pressure and irritation to the surrounding spinal nerves and the spinal cord. Herniated discs are most common in the lumbar region, and this may lead to pain and numbness in the back and the lower extremities.
Strains and Sprains
A strain or sprain on the tendons or ligaments in your thoracic or lumbar region is a common injury after a car accident. This happens due to the overstretching caused by the forceful impact, as the pressure was too much for the fibrous tissues to absorb.
This overstretching may also cause them to tear. A stretched, partially torn, or fully torn tendon is a strain, whereas the same type of injury of a ligament is a sprain. A tendon connects a muscle to a bone, and a ligament connects bone to bone.
Fractures
A fracture in the spine is a break to any of the vertebral bones. Depending on the size and location of the break, these can be very dangerous. For instance, a compression fracture in the vertebra of the thoracic region of the spine due to a head-on collision can result in breathing difficulty due to its location near the lungs.
Back Injury Treatment in Delaware
If you need a comprehensive evaluation after being in a car accident, look no further than Delaware Back Pain & Sports Rehabilitation Centers. Our highly skilled and experienced doctors and rehabilitation specialists provide complete care for patients who are suffering from acute or chronic neck and back pain. We have a multidisciplinary team of doctors and rehabilitation specialists, so everything is right here in the same practice.
If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation, contact us today by calling us at the clinic nearest you or by filling out our appointment request form online now. We look forward to serving you.
