Neck injury to women in automobile accidents.
To the Editor:— Their statement that "the proportion (about 75%) of women with symptoms 6 to 26 months after the accident was as great in the groups not involved or no longer involved in litigation as in the group with pending litigation" is at substantial variance with the experience of other authors. In a series of 313 cases of rearend collisions treated by me and my associates from 1958 to 1962, the recovery period averaged 6.1 weeks. Prolongation of convalescence occurred in practically every instance in those patients with preexisting degenerative disk disease or arthritic changes in the cervical spine. Disability benefits, apart from litigation, may well influence the recovery of industrial employees, and it would be of interest to know how many of the 15 patients remaining symptomatic 6 to 20 months after the accident, either without suit or status of the litigation being unknown, continued to receive disability benefits