Much publicity has been given to neck manipulation and risk of stroke. This serious complication is extremely rare, with statistics of vertebral artery damage following neck manipulation at 1 in 1 million adjustments or 0.0001%. The 2000-2010 Task Force on Neck Pain and its Associated Disorders reviewed 32,000 research papers and provided the first definitive evidence on actual risk rate and causation of neck manipulation and vertebrobasiliar artery (VBA) stroke.
The Task Force analyzed the database covering 109 million person years that recorded all primary medical care practitioner (PCP) and chiropractic (DC) visits and all the VBA stroke admissions in the province of Ontario for eight years. They concluded that there was no evidence of excess risk of VBA stroke associated with chiropractic compared to primary care. The slight increase of risk associated with patients consulting either a PCP or DC is "likely due to patients with headache and neck pain from VBA dissection seeking care before their stroke". They explain that any motion can lead to a stroke where there has already been damage to a vertebral artery, such as turning to back up the car, extending the neck at the hair dresser, or simple range of motion testing which can lead to release of the embolus and cause a stroke.
For a summary of this report go to http://www.chiropracticcanada.ca/ecms.ashx/Doc/EntireStrokeStudy.pdf
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