Spinal manipulation 'causes injury'

Manipulating the upper spine during back treatments could result in serious injury, experts have warned.

A review of studies published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine concluded that spinal manipulation should not routinely be done on patients.

When performed on the upper spine, it may result in serious and possibly fatal complications such as stroke, the experts said.

The technique is commonly used by chiropractors across the UK and occasionally by osteopaths, physiotherapists and physicians.

Spinal manipulation is when a health professional uses their hands to move parts of the spine. The aim is to adjust the small joints between the bones to help relieve any pain and stiffness.

Some studies have suggested problems can be made worse by the technique, while others support its aims.

Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at the universities of Exeter and Plymouth, led the review.

He said: "Even allowing for an extraordinarily high level of under-reporting, spinal manipulation has been associated with about 600 serious adverse events.

"In addition, it causes non-serious adverse effects in about 50% of all patients who use it. If any drug were linked to such rates of harm, I somehow doubt that it would still be on the market."

In the cases study by the team, problems ranged from low-level pain to disc herniation, bone fractures, spinal cord injury and stroke.

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