Trauma or treatment? The role of intermittent traction in the treatment of cervical soft tissue injuries

Neurophysiology does not provide a satisfactory theory which explains the phenomenon of muscular "spasm" which is said to be present in the neck following soft-tissue injury. Lacking knowledge as to whether long continued intermittent traction--ranging from 10 pounds to total body weight pull--is therapeutic or traumatic, such treatments nevertheless are prescribed in physiotherapy departments and at home for months. They are believed to be non-physiological and irrational and, in the author's opinon, represent the persistence of several medical myths associated with the "rear-end" collision. The question is moot whether the intractable complaints following such injuries are not caused, in large part, by the repeated traumas to muscles, disks, and joints produced by strong intermittent distraction. Experimental anatomical studies also argue against the hopes expressed in favor of such treatment, namely: to relieve spasm and/or traumatic fibro-myositis (?), to enlarge the neural foramina and relieve "radiculitis," and to hasten recovery by means of a conjectured internal massage.