Safety of chiropractic
“There is no robust data concerning the incidence or prevalence of adverse reactions after chiropractic,” according to reviewers from Portugal.
First, the details.
- A search of the literature revealed 376 potentially relevant articles.
- 46 articles were considered worth including in this review.
And, the results.
- Most of the side effects reported were benign and transitory.
- Life threatening complications included arterial dissection, myelopathy (disturbance of the spinal cord), vertebral disc extrusion, and epidural hematoma (swelling or mass of blood between the skull and the brain).
- The frequency of adverse events varied between 33% and 61%.
- The frequency of serious adverse events:
- 5 strokes/100,000 manipulations
- 1.5 serious side effects/10,000,000 manipulations
- 2.7 deaths/10,000,000 manipulations
The bottom line?
An earlier review by researchers in the UK concluded, “Although minor side effects following cervical spine manipulation were relatively common, the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low.”
5/17/09 17:20 JR