Resources

The Melbourne Whiplash Centre is committed to evidence based practice. This ensures our patients receive the best possible treatment to assist with their management and recovery.

The MWC has recently received ethical approval (Monash University) to undertake a research project looking at the impact of Concussion on neck strength in AFL players. The study will assess the neck strength of AFL players who have and have not had a previous concussion to identify any strength deficits.

The Melbourne Whiplash Centre and the MCU has been directly involved in numerous publications. These are listed below with a brief summary of each paper:

Please choose from the following PDFs:

1. Physio Research International July 2020
   Progressive resistance exercise for improving pain and disability in chronic neck pain: A case series
2. Spine Publication, Davidson and De Nardis 2011 “ A 12 item Symptom Intensity Rating scale”. This paper directly correlated the SIR with the universally accepted NDI (Neck Disability Index). Results suggest that both the NDI and SIR should be used to evaluate both the pain scale and functional capacity of patients suffering from chronic neck pain.
3. Professor Jenny Keating and De Nardis, published in 2008 in the Journal of Whiplash and Related disorders. This paper demonstrated that patients with higher levels of neck dysfunction respond more favourably than those with mild dysfunction to our advanced neck rehabilitation program.
4. Randomized Controlled Trial on the Efficacy of Exercise for Patients With Chronic Neck Pain
5. Chiu 2002 who concluded: “Conclusions: The Multi Cervical Rehabilitation Unit was found to be reliable and valid for testing the cervical active range of motion and isometric neck muscle strength for both normal and patient subjects.
6. Chiu and Hedley 2002 and their conclusions were “ Conclusion: Men have approximately 20–70% greater isometric neck muscle strength than women. Both men and women can maintain high levels of cervical muscle strength in six different directions up to their seventh decade. There is no significant correlation between physical measurements and isometric neck muscle strength.
7. Pearson March 2009 who concluded:  The MCU demonstrated good test-retest properties for healthy subjects and individuals with WAD. Cervical strength was lower in individuals with WAD; however, the strength deficits were not clearly linked with psychological factors.
8. Reliability Study Findings Demonstrates that the procedures we use at the Whiplash Centre are ‘reliable’. Thus all centres purchasing a MCU are trained on The Melbourne Protocol as designed in our facility.
9. Summary of Outcome findings This document demonstrates the improvement seen in our patients who were suffering from chronic neck pain. It demonstrates the success of our neck rehabilitation program.