Safety

Chiropractic has an enviable safety record. According to the Royal New Zealand Commission of Inquiry on Chiropractic, chiropractic is "remarkably safe."

In the entire 110 year history of chiropractic, chiropractors have adjusted, manipulated and mobilised the spine of people of all ages and never, ever has a child been killed, or seriously injured permanently. That is world-wide. This is an astounding statistic.

There has been a great deal of media attention on one possible side-effect from manipulation, and that is stroke. The best estimates put this risk at 1 per 1 million treatments to 1 per 5.85 million treatments.

Haldemann S, Kohlbeck FJ, McGregor M. (1999) Risk Factors and Precipitating neck Movements Causing Vertebrobasilar Artery Dissection After Cervical Trauma and Spinal Manipulation, Spine 24(8):785-794.

Haldemann S, Carey P, et al. (2001) Arterial Dissections Following Cervical Manipulation: The Chiropractic Experience, CMAJ 165(7):905-906.

Other figures such as 1 per 500,000 treatments have been suggested after a survey of a group of neurologists. But this figure has been discredited by the scientific community and courts of law as no more than the opinion of a group vocally opposed to chiropractic manipulation.

Either way the risk is extremely low or “small and … smaller than that associated with many commonly used diagnostic tests or prescription drugs” as described by Kapral and Bondy, expert medical commentators.

Kapral MK, Bondy SJ (2001) Cervical Manipulation and Risk of Stroke, CMAJ 165(7);907-908

For comparison the side effects risk from NSAIDs (taken for at least 2 months) is

• 1 in 5 has GI erosions and ulcers
• 1 in 70 has stomach pains/symptoms
• 1 in 150 has ulcers that bleeds and,
• 1 in 1200 dies from that bleeding

Medical Post, April 4, 2000