Neck injury following nonimpact mild traumatic brain injury in motor vehicle collisions

Abstract

Several studies of neurocognitive differences between selected samples of nonimpact and impact patients experiencing mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in a single motor vehicle accident have been conducted. The results suggested comparable and essentially normal brain-related cognitive skills for these clinical groups, but with notable exceptions for nonimpact individuals involving tactile- and visual-spatial perceptual and memory deficiencies. These findings raised the possibility that some nonimpact patients were experiencing dysfunction of post-central cerebral regions due to neck injury that was interfering with vertebral artery function. Neck injury was presented in this study as a hypothetical correlate of vertebral artery dysfunction. The hypothesis that neck injury was more likely for this sample of nonimpact mTBI patients was tested by comparing frequencies of neck injury complaints and diagnostic conclusions of neck injury, and agreement between these variables, for nonimpact and impact patients. While frequency differences for neck injury complaints and diagnostic conclusions did not quite achieve statistical significance, concordance between these variables was significantly higher for nonimpact individuals. Agreement between neck injury complaints and diagnostic conclusions was significantly more likely for nonimpact patients, supporting the possibility of a notable relationship between nonimpact mTBI and neck injury in motor vehicle collisions.