Spine Spasms After a Crash: Can You Go for a Claim?

Overview

After your recent car accident, do you feel any tightness or pain in your back? Maybe you have a spine spasm. Never try to turn a blind eye to your body’s warning. Spine spasms or back muscle spasms could be a warning sign of something more serious, even though they are common after traumatic accidents, wrong workouts, or slip and falls.

Muscle spasms can happen anywhere in the body. However, when it occurs at the back along the spine, it restricts the back’s range of motion. A spine spasm also can indicate anything other than a typical turn and twitch. This blog attempts to dissect the facts behind spine spasms, how to effectively manage them, and the possibilities of proceeding with a lawsuit.

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What is a Spine Spasm/Back Spasm?

Injuries to the spinal joints can cause inflammation of the surrounding muscles and cause intense contractions in the back. These muscle contractions are known as spine spasms, back muscle spasms, or muscle cramps, and they cause excruciating pain and limited mobility.

Muscle spasms after car accident can happen in any part of the spine. Spine spasm in the neck can be caused as described below:

A contraction of the rhomboid muscle connecting the shoulder blades with the rib cage and spine can generate spasms in the midback area.

A contraction of the big group of stabilizing muscles called erector spinae muscles, including the iliocostalis, longissimus, and spinalis muscles that run on either side of the spine, or the latissimus dorsi, is likely to cause a spasm in the lower back.

What Causes Spasms in the Spine?

Spine spasms can normally occur to anyone at any time. The causes of most of the back spasms remain a mystery. For a significant percentage of people, muscle spasms are caused by

• Overuse of muscles
• Over-exercising
• Sudden turn or twitch to the back
• Injury to the muscle, tendon, and ligaments
• Inflammation around the spine
• Poor posture
• Dehydration
• Nerve damage
• Fibromyalgia
• Injury to the disc
• Anxiety
• Sprains and strains
• Arthritis
• Spondylolisthesis
• Lumbar lordosis straightening
• Spinal stenosis
• Auto accident injuries

What Causes Back Spasms after a Car Accident?

As you know, automobile accidents cause sudden and unexpected movements in the human body. Due to the forceful impact, the human body moves involuntarily and out of human control. This sudden turn and twitch could stretch or tear the soft tissues like muscles, tendons, or ligaments at the back.

Usually, muscle spasms in the neck and lower back are the most common outcome of auto accidents. The violent movements to the neck or lower back can strain or tear the muscles or tendons there can cause muscle spasm after car accident. Whiplash injuries, disc herniations, sprain or strain at the back, and fractures to the spine or the hip are some of the spine injuries that cause back spasms that can ensue in car crashes.

How to Get Rid of Back Spasms Fast?

The majority of mild spine spasms can be treated with over-the-counter medications and home remedies. Let’s see what we can do to get rid of the spine spasms as soon as possible.

Therapeutic use of heat and ice: Heat and cold therapy is an excellent treatment for mild spine spasms. Continuously apply the hot pack wrapped in a towel to the area of the spasm for about 15 minutes. After a break, apply a cold pack wrapped in a towel to the same area for 15 minutes. Alternatively, you can do the same thing to get relief from the spasm.

Massages: We used to rely on massages to relieve the majority of back pains. They are also beneficial for back spasms. Applying gentle pressure to the spastic region tends to relieve the pressure.

Hydrating the body: Because some back spasms are caused by dehydration, drink plenty of water and electrolyte drinks to keep your body hydrated. Drinking more water helps to keep the muscles hydrated and prevents protein breakdown in cells.

Stretches: Mild exercises on an exercise ball or foam roller would be beneficial to the person suffering from a spine spasm. Stretches such as the knee to chest, lying knee twist, cat-cow pose, cobra stretch, restful child’s pose, and piriformis seated stretch can be beneficial for spasmodic backs.

Walking: Walking with a slow stride on a level surface is the simplest way to relieve back spasm pain. Walking relieves tension in the back muscles and aids in pain relief.

Medications: Some antispasmodic medications that can be used to treat spine spasms include Tylenol (acetaminophen), Advil/Motrin (ibuprofen), Aleve (naproxen), Methocarbamol, Buscopan, Merbentyl, Spasmanol, Alvercol, Colpermin, Mintec, and Colofac.

When Should I be Worried about Back Spasms?

Most of us will experience muscle spasms after a fall. Most spine spasms occur as a result of hard work, lifting heavy objects, a sudden twitch to the back, or even smaller impacts in minor auto accidents. These spine muscle spasms will go away in a week. Home therapies, such as cold and hot therapies, will be beneficial in treating them.

However, if your spine spasm extends beyond that and the intensity of your pain increases rather than decreases, you must pay attention to your body’s warning signal.

People with degenerative disc disease, sacroiliitis, ankylosing spondylitis, and spine arthritis also might get spine spasms as the initial indicators. The spasm will resolve quickly with home remedies in the beginning. However, if the spine spasm becomes a recurring occurrence in your life, it may be communicating something to you. Delaying medical attention may result in more severe pain, extended treatments, and costly surgeries.

Shooting pain radiating to the upper and/or lower extremities, combined with a back spasm, indicates that the nerves in the spine have been compressed. Numbness, pins and needles in the limbs and loss of bowel control are also red flags for medical attention.

How Can you Diagnose a Spinal Muscle Spasm?

Physicians will gather details of your past medical history, symptoms, the affected area of your spine if the pain is radiating or not, your antalgic gait and the pain scale value to diagnose the source of your spine spasm. The other methods to diagnose spine spasms are as follows.

• X-rays
• Blood tests
• Electromyography
• Computed Tomography
• Magnetic resonance imaging
• Myelogram

How do you Treat a Severe Spinal Spasm from a Car Accident?

Most back spasms after car accident will resolve with home remedies within a week or two. When home remedies and over-the-counter medications fail to provide relief, you must accept that your car accident has resulted in some serious injury to your back, which must be taken seriously. That is the time to seek medical help for your spasmodic back.

As previously stated, spine spasms may indicate an underlying spinal injury. Back spasms caused by a disc herniation, rupture, annular tear, whiplash, soft tissue injuries, or spinal cord injuries require specialized treatment such as physical therapy, chiropractic therapy, corticosteroid injections, or in extreme cases, surgery.

Physical therapy: The treatment would differ depending on the underlying cause. Physical therapy can help with some spinal injuries. Physical therapists use manipulation and massage therapies to relieve stress on the nerves, ligaments, and tendons. The therapists would also instruct the patients on how to perform home exercises in order to maintain the rhythm of therapy and relieve the intense pain.

Chiropractic therapy: When physical therapy fails, or to assist the patient in treating pain in addition to physical therapy, chiropractic therapy is recommended to effectively treat the injuries. Chiropractic therapy is effective at relieving nerve pressure by manipulating the muscles, nerves, and tendons. They can also analyze and diagnose the cause of spine spasms, as well as effectively treat them using a variety of techniques.

Corticosteroid injections: Corticosteroid injections can effectively treat the underlying conditions that cause muscle spasms. Steroid shots can provide quick relief for inflamed muscles, joints, tendons, and bursae. Corticosteroid injections may help relieve pain caused by musculoskeletal disorders in some cases.

Surgeries: Most muscle spasms go away on their own or with milder pain medications in a short period of time. However, if spinal nerve injuries cause spasms, treatment will be required to resolve the spine spasms and prevent any further complications. Cordectomy, Neurotomy, Rhizotomy, Myelotomy, and Spinal cord stimulation are some of the surgeries to cure the underlying spinal issues causing spine spasms.

Can you Sue for the Spine Spasms Caused by the Car Crash?

Minor muscle spasms, as previously demonstrated, may resolve on their own. However, if your body collides with the objects inside the car, you may sustain injuries to the spinal muscles, ligaments, tendons, or even vertebral elements. Your body might only project a spine spasm. In such instances, you may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit.

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What Should you do to Proceed with your Claim?

If you are in an accident and experience spine spasms, never cold shoulder the warning given by your body. You may have delayed lower back pain after car accident. If you ignore that as a mild pain that will go away in a few days, you might be inviting trouble. Delayed treatment can exacerbate your injuries and lead to disputes during the legal proceedings. Getting your symptoms of spine spasms documented in medical records sooner than later will magnify your chances of bagging the claim.

The assistance of an experienced personal injury attorney will help bolster your claim while negotiating with the defendant’s insurance adjusters or convincing the jury of the seriousness of your injuries. Choose an attorney who understands the intricacies of personal injury law like the back of his hand to handle your claim.

It would be a mammoth task to sift through the voluminous medical records for the vital evidence for your spine spasm, which is causing prolonged treatment and interminable agony. In such cases, you can rely on companies that offer medical record review solutions in a reasonable timeframe. A medical record review company, such as LezDo TechMed, has experienced professionals who can comb through your medical records for vital records that support your claim.

To conclude,

Accidents cannot be totally avoided, no matter how cautious we are. Whether you were involved in a fender bender or a major collision, receiving medical treatment as soon as possible prevents you from excruciating pain and misery. Never dismiss spinal spasms; pay attention to them and seek medical help if necessary. You can seek restitution for your damages without much trouble if you sue the careless driver who caused your injuries within the statute of limitations and with the help of an attorney.

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