18/09/2025
Concussion and the Cervical Spine 👇🏻
When a concussion occurs, it is very common for a whiplash injury to the cervical spine to occur at the same time. This makes sense, as it generally takes far less force to cause whiplash than to produce a mild traumatic brain injury. As a result, many patients present with both conditions simultaneously.
The difficulty is that concussion and whiplash share a large overlap in symptoms. Headache, dizziness, visual disturbances, and even cognitive complaints can arise from either injury. Because of this overlap, symptoms alone are often insufficient to distinguish between brain injury and cervical dysfunction unless the cervical spine is specifically assessed.
