‘Catastrophic’ risk from spinal manipulation

Spinal manipulation should be abandoned as a treatment for neck pain as it offers little benefit and risks inflicting “catastrophic” injury, an Australian expert has argued.

Associate Professor Benedict Wand said cervical spine manipulation, commonly used in chiropractic for neck pain, carried the potential for serious complications such as vertebral artery dissection.

Coupled with the lack of clear benefit over other treatments, it was an “inevitable conclusion” that cervical spine manipulation should be scrapped for this use, Professor Wand