Adverse Events in Chiropractic

Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research warns doctors about misleading American Heart Association statement regarding strokes and chiropractic

Published on Aug 11, 2014 Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research warns doctors about misleading American Heart Association statement regarding strokes and chiropractic. http://youtu.be/zCp_KDXet9g Full news release at: http://blogs.palmer.edu/news/2014/08/11/leading-scientist-takes-american-heart-association-to-task/ YouTube Link   They looked at research which studied biomechanics of the spine to see if SMT could cause decreased blood flow to the vertebral arteries.  NOT […]

AHA: Risk Discussion Needed Before Neck Tx

by Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today August 08, 2014 Patients should be warned before chiropractic manipulation of the neck that the technique has been linked to cervical dissection, which can cause stroke, the American Heart Association warned. A scientific statement from the organization in the October issue of Stroke cautioned about the low level of […]

ACA Responds to American Heart Association/American Stroke Association

ACA Responds to American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Scientific Statement on Cervical Manipulative Therapy  Stroke and Informed Consent Resources Available to the Profession  The American Heart Association (AHA)/American Stroke Association (ASA) today released a scientific statement on cervical manipulative therapy (CMT) and the association with cervical artery dissection (CD). Abstract Full PDF Read ACA’s response […]

Intracranial hypotension syndrome following manipulation of the cervical spine

Tazelaar GH, et al. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2014. Abstract BACKGROUND: Chiropractic interventions such as manipulation of the cervical spine can incidentally lead to severe neurological complications. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 63-year-old female patient presented at the Neurology outpatient clinic with a five-week history of severe postural headache, tinnitus and nausea. The onset of these symptoms was […]

Adverse Events After Manual Therapy Among Patients Seeking Care for Neck and/or Back Pain

A Randomized Controlled Trial Kari Paanalahti BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2014;15(77) Abstract Background: The safety of the manual treatment techniques such as spinal manipulation has been discussed and there is a need for more information about potential adverse events after manual therapy. The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to investigate differences in occurrence of […]

VBA Stroke: Resources for Doctors of Chiropractic

There is growing interest in the association between cervical manipulation and vertebrobasilar artery (VBA) stroke. Historically, opinion rather than fact has often dominated discussions on this topic, even though the incidence of stroke associated with cervical manipulation is very rare and there is a lack of evidence to prove that cervical adjustments can cause a stroke. ACA is sensitive […]

Full-endoscopic interlaminar removal of chronic lumbar epidural hematoma after spinal manipulation – Full Text Article

Surg Neurol Int. 2014 Apr 19;5:55. doi: 10.4103/2152-7806.131106. eCollection 2014. Yen-Po Cheng Abstract BACKGROUND: Spinal manipulation is widely used for low back pain treatments. Complications associated with spinal manipulation are seen. Lumbar epidural hematoma (EDH) is one of the complications reported in the literature. If lumbar chronic EDH symptoms are present, which are similar to […]

A systematic literature review of intracranial hypotension following chiropractic

Int J Clin Pract. 2014 Mar;68(3):396-402. doi: 10.1111/ijcp.12247. Epub 2013 Dec 22. Tuchin P. Abstract BACKGROUND: Intracranial hypotension (IH) is caused by a leakage of cerebrospinal fluid (often from a tear in the dura) which commonly produces an orthostatic headache. It has been reported to occur after trivial cervical spine trauma including spinal manipulation. Some […]

Adverse events after manual therapy among patients seeking care for neck and/or back pain: a randomized controlled trial

Kari Paanalahti BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders  201415:77 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2474-15-77 Abstract Background The safety of the manual treatment techniques such as spinal manipulation has been discussed and there is a need for more information about potential adverse events after manual therapy. The aim of this randomized controlled trial was to investigate differences in occurrence of adverse events […]

Lumbar disc herniation and cauda equina syndrome following spinal manipulative therapy

A review of six court decisions in Canada Boucher P, et al. J Forensic Leg Med. 2014 Feb;22:159-69. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2013.12.026. Epub 2014 Jan 7. PubMed Reference Abstract The purpose of this review is to expand practitioners’ knowledge on areas of liability when treating low back pain patients. Six cases where chiropractors in Canada were sued […]

Outcomes of Usual Chiropractic. The OUCH Randomized Controlled Trial of Adverse Events

Outcomes of Usual Chiropractic. The OUCH Randomized Controlled Trial of Adverse Events Study Design. Blinded parallel-group randomized controlled trial. Objective. Establish the frequency and severity of adverse effects from short-term usual chiropractic treatment of the spine when compared with a sham treatment group. Summary of Background Data. Previous studies have demonstrated that adverse events occur […]

Massive Hematothorax after Thoracic Spinal Manipulation for Acute Thoracolumbar Pain

Johannes Struewer Orthop Rev (Pavia). 2013 July 24; 5(3): e27. Published online 2013 September 11. doi: 10.4081/or.2013.e27 Abstract Spinal manipulation usually represents a widely used and effective method for physicians in order to relieve acute patient pain and muscular dysbalance. Although life-threatening complications (e.g. pneumothorax, vertebral artery dissection, stroke) after manual treatment are reported with […]

The Safety of Cervical Manipulation: Putting Stroke Risk in Perspective, Part 2

By Anthony Rosner, PhD, LLD [Hon.], LLC Dynamic Chiropractic – June 3, 2011, Vol. 29, Issue 12 To date, the assessment options for vertebrobasilar artery risk have significant drawbacks and as a whole have been unable to identify any particular factor that is useful for screening.61-62 Provocation tests in particular are problematic in that in several […]

The Safety of Cervical Manipulation: Putting Stroke Risk in Perspective, Part 1

By Anthony Rosner, PhD, LLD [Hon.], LLC Dynamic Chiropractic – May 20, 2011, Vol. 29, Issue 11 Relative Activity Risks Several studies have attempted to link chiropractic manipulation to adverse events, the most serious and widely studied being strokes following dissections of the vertebral artery.1-6 To begin to shed light on this problem, several retrospective studies against […]

Deaths after chiropractic: a review of published cases

E. Ernst International Journal of Clinical Practice Volume 64, Issue 8, pages 1162–1165, July 2010 Summary Objective:  The aim of this study was to summarise all cases in which chiropractic spinal manipulation was followed by death. Design:  This study is a systematic review of case reports. Methods:  Literature searches in four electronic databases with no […]

Safety of Chiropractic Interventions: A Systematic Review

Gouveia, Liliana Olim MD Spine: 15 May 2009 – Volume 34 – Issue 11 – pp E405-E413 Abstract Study Design. Systematic review of reported adverse events. Objective. To evaluate the tolerability and safety of chiropractic procedures. Summary of Background Data. Despite the increasing popularity of chiropractic, there are few properly designed prospective controlled trials, and […]

Safety of Spinal Manipulation in the Treatment of Lumbar Disk Herniations: A Systematic Review and Risk Assessment

Drew Oliphant, DC Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics Volume 27, Issue 3 , Pages 197-210, March 2004 Journal Reference Abstract Objective To provide a qualitative systematic review of the risk of spinal manipulation in the treatment of lumbar disk herniations (LDH) and to estimate the risk of spinal manipulation causing a severe adverse reaction […]