Herniated Disc Symptoms and Treatment

The speed and forces involved in the typical car crash are more than sufficient to cause serious harm to a person’s muscles and bones. One injury that occurs with some regularity is a herniated disc. A herniated disc can cause significant pain and limit the type of activities in which a person can engage. Depending on the severity of the injury, pain can last for a few months or last a lifetime. Prompt action after a car crash can help injured drivers recover compensation for their losses and expenses caused by a herniated disc.

What is a Herniated Disc?

Discs are round “cushions” or “shock absorbers” positioned between the vertebrae in the spinal column. Each disc has an external “shell” as well as a liquid-like center. After a car crash, this disc can shift its position, causing two vertebrae to make contact with each other and cause significant pain. Or a disc can “leak” its fluid, decreasing the cushioning between vertebrae. This too can cause pain that radiates throughout a person’s body.

Symptoms of a Herniated Disc

It is not uncommon for the pain of a herniated disc to be initially masked by the adrenaline involved in a car crash. The pain is usually noticed some time afterwards. It may feel like something is “just out of place” in your back or neck. You may feel painful or unusual sensations in various parts of your body. These sensations can either be a numb feeling, a “pins and needles” or tingling feeling, or a sharp, stabbing pain. Other symptoms of a herniated disc include:

• Muscle spasms or muscle tightness;
• Muscle weakness;
• Pain that comes and goes or that increases with certain movements or activity;
• Loss of feeling or strength in arms and legs; and
• Loss of control over bowel or bladder.

Herniated Disc Treatment

After a car crash, you may wonder if you have a herniated disc, especially considering that symptoms may appear some time after the crash. An MRI test can detect whether you do in fact have a herniated disc; however, you may have to ask the hospital to specifically perform such a test. A herniated disc typically does not appear on X-rays, but MRIs are expensive to perform. Note, though, that if you leave the hospital immediately following a car crash without having an MRI performed but you later return with pain and are diagnosed with a herniated disc, then it may be more difficult to prove the herniated disc was caused by the car crash.

Contact Kaire & Heffernan, L.L.C. Today

Immediately following a car crash or serious accident , you should seek medical attention. Be sure to describe all of your symptoms and, if in doubt, request that the hospital check for a herniated disc in your back or neck. Then contact Kaire & Heffernan, LLC. We are dedicated to helping injured motorists recover compensation when they are hurt by someone else’s negligence.