More than 90% of whiplash patients fail to return for additional treatment once their legal action is completed.

The finding is from an unpublished study of 100 patients attending the Mater Hospital pain management service.

The revelation that nine out of 10 whiplash patients fail to return for treatment following the completion of their legal acton has been revealed by two leading neurosurgeons.

The Irish Times reports that a paper by Jack Philips and Ciaran Bolger - neurosurgeons at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin - describes whiplash as a 'concept' surrounded by 'myths', and not based on scientific evidence.

The doctors say people who suffer whiplash in sport and do not take legal action recover is six to 12 weeks.

While they say this tends not to be the case by people who take legal action after being involved in a collision.

"The concept of evidence-based medicine is rarely applied to whiplash injury claimants.

"Medical therapists in all forms portray the acute whiplash injury as an injury that requires assistance in healing.

Words like 'inflammation', 'tightness', 'trigger points', 'subluxation', etc are loosely used by various therapists."

A separate study of patients of a Galway spinal surgeon found that just 10 of 301 were seen in his clinic after their litigation came to an end.