[Mystery of alar ligament rupture: value of MRI in whiplash injuries--biomechanical, anatomical and clinical studies].

PURPOSE: Whiplash injury of the cervical spine is a frequent issue in medical expertise and causes enormous consequential costs for motor insurance companies. Some authors accuse posttraumatic changes of alar ligaments to be causative for consequential disturbances.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Review of recent studies on biomechanics, anatomical and clinical MR imaging.
RESULTS: Biomechanical experiments can not induce according injuries of alar ligaments. Although MRI provides excellent visualization of alar ligaments, the range of normal variants is high.
CONCLUSION: Biomechanical studies give no evidence of alar ligament involvement in whiplash disease. Using MRI, signal alterations of alar ligaments can hardly be differentiated from common normal variants. Functional MRI provides no diagnostic yield.