Any time you drive or ride in a vehicle, you have a risk of being involved in a motor vehicle accident. Some of the most common types of injuries in car accidents are lumbar disc injuries. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCSC) reports that motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of spinal cord injuries(SCIs), accounting for 38.6% of the annual reported new SCIs each year. Researchers have also found that lumbar disc injuries are particularly common in head-on collisions and side-swipe accidents, but they also frequently occur in T-bone collisions and rear-end accidents. If you are involved in a motor vehicle accident and suffer injuries to your lower back, here is some information you should know about lumbar disc injuries resulting from motor vehicle collisions.
Types of Lumbar Disc Injuries in Car Accidents
While many different types of injuries can happen to the lumbar discs, there are several that are more common in motor vehicle accidents. The most common types of lumbar disc injuries from car accidents are detailed below.
Lumbar Disc Herniations
The discs in your lumbar spine cushion the vertebrae and help to absorb shocks. They also provide for flexibility of movement. The outer layer of a disc is a hard layer of cartilage called the annulus fibrosis. It encapsulates the inner layer called the nucleus pulposus. When a disc herniates, the annulus fibrosis tears, allowing some of the gelatinous material from the nucleus to leak out. The gelatinous material can leak out and place pressure on one of the spinal nerves entering the spine or leak into the spinal canal itself. Herniated lumbar discs can cause significant pain. If the herniation aggravates a spinal nerve, you could also experience radiculopathy and pain radiating down one or both legs, changes in sensation, weakness or numbness, and mobility issues.
Lumbar Disc Prolapses/Bulging Discs
A bulging or prolapsed lumbar disc does not have a tear in the annulus. Instead, the annulus is weakened and becomes thinner, allowing the nucleus to bulge into the area when you move. Many people have bulging discs without symptoms caused by degenerative disc disease. However, a motor vehicle accident can cause this type of injury to worsen, resulting in pain and other symptoms.
Degenerative Disc Injuries
Degenerative disc disease naturally happens with aging. As you grow older, changes will occur to your lumbar discs, including their cellular structure, annuli, and thickness. While you might see signs of degeneration in your lumbar discs on an MRI, you might not experience symptoms or only experience mild back pain. However, the trauma in a motor vehicle accident can greatly worsen the condition of your lumbar discs even though you have pre-existing degenerative disc disease. If the other motorist caused your accident, the insurance company might try to argue that your injuries were caused by your pre-existing degenerative disc disease. However, when another driver is at fault for your accident, he or she is also responsible for any exacerbation caused to your pre-existing condition.
Facet Joint Injuries
Each of the vertebra in your vertebral column is connected by facet joints. The facet joints in the lumbar region bear a significant amount of weight to provide support for your spine and are susceptible to injuries in motor vehicle accidents. Injuries to the facet joints can occur when there is a sudden blow to the lower back. The facet joints help to support movement and flexibility, and when they are injured, it can affect the mobility of the entire area. Facet joint injuries can cause inflammation and referred pain. They can also cause radiating pain down your legs called sciatica.
Fractured Vertebrae
Your lumbar vertebrae can be fractured in motor vehicle collisions. Some lumbar spine fractures can be relatively minor hairline fractures and heal over time with minimal intervention while others can be serious injuries or death. For example, a burst fracture occurs when a vertebra fractures in several places, causing bone fragments to damage surrounding tissues and potentially the spinal cord. Damage to the spinal cord from a bony fracture can result in paralysis or death.
Flexion fractures are another type of fracture that commonly occurs in head-on collisions in which the upper portion of your body is thrown forward while the lower part remains in place because of your seatbelt. This can cause the affected vertebra to be torn apart.
You might also suffer from a vertebral compression fracture in which the vertebral face collapses while the back stays in position. While this type of fracture most commonly occurs in people with osteoporosis, even those who have a healthy bone mass can suffer a vertebral compression fracture in a traumatic car accident.
Lumbar vertebral fractures can cause severe pain that worsens with movement. If your spinal cord is also injured, you might experience numbness, tingling, or weakness in your legs, loss of bowel or bladder function, or partial or total paralysis from the site of the injury and below. Thankfully, the safety equipment in modern cars has helped to decrease the incidence of spinal fractures in motor vehicle accidents, but they still occur in severe collisions.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Lumbar Injuries Following a Car Crash
If you think that you might have suffered any type of back injury in a car accident, you should see a doctor immediately. Acute lumbar injuries can become chronic and debilitating without prompt treatment.
When you first meet with a doctor, he or she will review your medical history and ask questions about your accident. Imaging studies will likely be ordered to help the doctor accurately diagnose your injuries, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) scans, and x-rays. If a spinal cord injury is suspected, your doctor might also order evoked potential testing to measure how quickly nerve signals are traveling to your brain.
If you are brought to the hospital in an ambulance after a collision and have a suspected spine injury, the emergency room doctor will likely first perform imaging studies to rule out or diagnose potentially life-threatening spinal cord injuries.
The treatment you might receive will depend on your injuries. You might be administered corticosteroid injections and anti-inflammatory medications to reduce inflammation. Your doctor might also perform nerve blocks and prescribe physical therapy. Surgical intervention might be necessary in certain cases when other treatment methods have not helped to resolve your symptoms.
Your prognosis following a lumbar injury in a car accident will depend on multiple factors, including the following:
- Severity of the injury
- Injury type
- Overall health
- Age
- Pre-existing conditions
- Whether the spinal cord is involved
Legal Issues Following a Lumbar Injury in a Car Accident
Depending on the severity of your lumbar injuries, you could face staggeringly high medical expenses, wage losses, and other losses. Severe lumbar injuries could leave you with permanent paralysis, emotional trauma, and a permanent reduction in the quality of your life. The costs can be especially high if you are severely injured and will require long-term care, including rehabilitation, physical therapy, or personal care help.
When lumbar injuries happen in motor vehicle accidents caused by someone else, the injured victim has a right to pursue compensation from the at-fault party’s insurance company. You might want to pursue a personal injury claim to recover compensation for your losses. Compensation might be available for both your economic and non-economic losses, including your medical expenses, wage losses, property losses, pain and suffering, reduced quality of life, disability, and more.
One issue that sometimes arises for people who have suffered injuries in motor vehicle accidents is finding doctors who are willing to treat them. Some doctors refuse to treat car accident victims when they believe that legal claims might be involved. This might happen when a doctor’s office is unfamiliar with filing claims with auto insurance companies instead of medical insurers or when a doctor is concerned about being involved in potential litigation. If you have trouble finding doctors who are willing to treat you, you might consider asking a personal injury attorney for a list of providers who are willing to treat motor vehicle accident victims.
Another potential issue might occur if your accident occurred while you were driving for your job. In that case, you might be entitled to file a workers’ comp claim with your employer to recover compensation for your medical expenses and a percentage of your income if you are unable to return to work. If the other motorist caused your accident, you might also be able to file a claim with his or her insurance company. Identifying all potential sources of recovery following your motor vehicle collision and resulting injuries might help you to recover the compensation needed to cover your losses.
Lumbar back injuries can cause chronic pain and a loss of mobility. If you think you might have suffered back injuries in a collision, you should see your doctor immediately. Prompt care might help to facilitate your recovery and help you to prove that your injuries were caused by your accident instead of an intervening event.
