Whiplash Associated Disorders: manual therapy
Marco Primavera, Marta Rossi
Whiplash Associated Disorders (WAD) is the term used to define the symptoms often reported by people who have suffered acceleration/deceleration injury to the neck, which commonly occurs due to traffic accidents. The main symptom is usually neck pain, but it is also common to experience cervical stiffness, reduced ROM, dizziness, paraesthesia and localized anesthesia in the upper quadrant, headache, pain in the upper limbs and back, sleep disorders, fatigue and cognitive impairment. The mainstay of treatment for WAD is conservative and focuses on the reduction and/or resolution of associated disorders, such as pain and musculoskeletal problems. Manual therapy applied to the spine is commonly used in the clinical management of neck pain. Recent evidence and guidelines recommend the use of manual therapy associated with exercise and patient education. Manual therapy techniques aim to reduce reactivity, reduce pain, restore the ROM of the cervical spine.