Chiropractic is a mixture of rational science and complete nonsense. Much of it is based on the theory that a misaligned spine can produce nerve interference that then causes disease. Many chiropractors claim that correcting those misalignments ("subluxations") can restore health and that regular spinal adjustments at his or her business office are essential to maintaining that health.
Neither logic nor scientific evidence can support the chiropractor’s claim. Although spinal manipulation can relieve certain types of back pain, neck pain, and other musculoskeletal symptoms, there is no scientific evidence that it can restore or maintain health. There is scientific evidence however that certain chiropractic manipulations can result in severe personal injury such as stroke and damage to important vascular arteries in the neck and spine.
Chiropractors are liable for professional malpractice similar to that of a medical doctor or nurse if a patient is severely injured as a result of negligent care and treatment provided. Doctors of chiropractic using manual therapy treatments for patients with neck problems are required to explain to patients prior to treatment that there have been rare cases of injury to a vertebral artery as a result of chiropractic manipulation of the neck. They are required to inform a patient prior that such injury has been known to cause stroke as well as other severe Neurological Injury.
Chiropractic Induced Stroke
Stroke from chiropractic neck manipulation occurs when an artery to the brain ruptures or becomes blocked as a result of being stretched. The injury results primarily from the extreme rotation in which the practitioner's hands are placed on the patient's head in order to rotate the cervical spine by rotating the head. The vertebral artery is then extremely vulnerable because it winds around the topmost cervical vertebra to enter the skull, so that any abrupt rotation may stretch the artery and tear its delicate lining causing a blood clot to form over the injured area which may subsequently be dislodged and block a smaller artery that supplies the brain causing a debilitating stroke and permanent disability. Several medical reports have described chiropractic patients who, after neck manipulation, complained of dizziness and other symptoms of transient loss of blood supply to the brain but were manipulated again and suffered a full-blown stroke. Many medical physicians believe that chiropractors should abandon entirely neck rotational manipulations that overstretch the vertebral arteries.
A chiropractor should routinely take down all relevant patient medical history, perform a physical examination, and make all necessary vertebrobasilar function tests in order to have complied with the reasonable standard of care expected to be used chiropractors to prevent any kind of patient accident or injury arising from his or her treatments. He should have employed all reasonable screening procedures to lower or eliminate risk of patient harm. Commonly injured persons will be young, without bony or vascular pathology and who do not present with vertebrobasilar symptoms causing a false sense of security in the chiropractor because his screening procedures will often fail to readily detect a patient at high risk for neck manipulation injury.
