Motor Vehicle Collision Injuries

From The Critics

Reviewer: Dana J Lawrence, DC, MMedEd, MA(Palmer College of Chiropractic)
Description: This book presents a comprehensive review of information pertaining to motor vehicle collision accidents, emphasizing proper and thorough diagnosis, management considerations and medicolegal concerns. In addition, some time is spent looking at the actual force dynamics of car crashes, presenting the results of international crash studies. Thus, there is a good mix of clinical and basic information in this book, which has chapters authored by individuals from a variety of related fields.
Purpose: The basic purpose, as noted by the author in his preface, is to bring forth as much information learned from current international automotive crash studies, medical literature and clinical experience as possible. Thus, the book explores mechanisms, diagnosis, management and prognosis of motor vehicle injuries while attempting to improve methods of treatment and clarify insurance policies. It is therefore designed to be used as a reference source.
Audience: The primary audience is physicians (medical, osteopathic and chiropractic), other therapists such as physical therapists, claims adjusters and attorneys. Secondary use will be by students.
Features: There are two appendixes in the book, one presenting a glossary of terms and the other a velocity conversion table. A number of clinical algorithms are presented, though no information concerning how they were developed is given, The book has numerous illustrations and reproduces a substantial number of forms used in such cases. It also features authors drawn from a variety of sources: medical physicians and chiropractors, including radiologists, neurologists, physical medicine,/rehabilitation specialists, and one attorney.
Assessment: The book does meet its goal of presenting a thorough review and compendium of available literature. Each chapter is amply referenced, with current and up to date references. There is a good amount of material given over to diagnostic consideration, especially information to be gleaned form the history, radiographic examination and neurologic examination. The material on legal issues is quite well presented. There is less material on management, some of which seems a bit sketchy. There is also little information given to chiropractic approaches to such injuries and no specific recommendations for using manipulation. This is surprising, given that this is written by a chiropractor. This may reflect the paucity of information on this subject, but should be mentioned in more detail.

Dana J. Lawrence

This book presents a comprehensive review of information pertaining to motor vehicle collision accidents, emphasizing proper and thorough diagnosis, management considerations and medicolegal concerns. In addition, some time is spent looking at the actual force dynamics of car crashes, presenting the results of international crash studies. Thus, there is a good mix of clinical and basic information in this book, which has chapters authored by individuals from a variety of related fields. The basic purpose, as noted by the author in his preface, is to bring forth as much information learned from current international automotive crash studies, medical literature and clinical experience as possible. Thus, the book explores mechanisms, diagnosis, management and prognosis of motor vehicle injuries while attempting to improve methods of treatment and clarify insurance policies. It is therefore designed to be used as a reference source. The primary audience is physicians (medical, osteopathic and chiropractic), other therapists such as physical therapists, claims adjusters and attorneys. Secondary use will be by students. There are two appendixes in the book, one presenting a glossary of terms and the other a velocity conversion table. A number of clinical algorithms are presented, though no information concerning how they were developed is given, The book has numerous illustrations and reproduces a substantial number of forms used in such cases. It also features authors drawn from a variety of sources: medical physicians and chiropractors, including radiologists, neurologists, physical medicine,/rehabilitation specialists, and one attorney. The book does meet its goal of presenting athorough review and compendium of available literature. Each chapter is amply referenced, with current and up to date references. There is a good amount of material given over to diagnostic consideration, especially information to be gleaned form the history, radiographic examination and neurologic examination. The material on legal issues is quite well presented. There is less material on management, some of which seems a bit sketchy. There is also little information given to chiropractic approaches to such injuries and no specific recommendations for using manipulation. This is surprising, given that this is written by a chiropractor. This may reflect the paucity of information on this subject, but should be mentioned in more detail.

4 Stars! from Doody