title: A nonimpact article about nonimpact injury.
abstract: If reports of this caliber are required to insinuate that significant "brain damage" may ensue from rather mild nonimpact injury, there is some a priori reason to believe that this is not the case. The introduction of security belts, head rests, side-impact protection, and air bags has made driving safer; yet, the incidence of "brain injury" is allegedly rising. To definitely settle this issue, we will have to wait for other, preferably prospective, randomized, double-blind studies yielding a higher class of evidence. So, what do we learn from this study? First, in the United States, it is possible to select a sample of litigants that after a car accident or similar injury behaves and complains the way they did, even if there was no proof of morphological brain damage. Second, reports like this headed by a misleading title should better go unpublished until certain minimal standards of scientific scrutiny are met.
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Department, Neurological Hospital, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. christoph.lang@neuro.med.uni-erlangen.de
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lang
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014911:Whiplash Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*