Recent news reports on the risks of chiropractic cervical manipulation, or neck adjustments, have needlessly alarmed patients about one of the most safe and effective treatments in health care today, according to the American Chiropractic Association (ACA).
The ACA believes that patients have the right to know about the health risks associated with any type of treatment, including chiropractic. However, health care consumers should be aware that the risks associated with chiropractic treatment are "infinitesimally low," according to Dr. William J. Lauretti, an ACA member and chiropractic researcher from Bethesda, Maryland. "If you drive about a mile to get to your chiropractor's office, you have a statistically greater chance of being seriously injured in a car accident than of being seriously injured during your chiropractic treatment," explains Dr. Lauretti. "The risks of chiropractic have been grossly exaggerated, and health care consumers need to put these sensationalistic news reports into perspective."
Despite statistics from dozens of studies demonstrating the safety of chiropractic treatments, recent news reports have alleged that chiropractic neck adjustments can frequently damage arteries in the neck that carry blood to the brain, possibly leading to a stroke. However, according to a study by the Rand Corporation, a serious adverse reaction from cervical manipulation occurs less than once in 1 million treatments. The study also showed that on the rare occasion of an adverse reaction, it is often the result of the procedure being performed by a health professional who is inexperienced or inadequately trained in spinal manipulation, rather than by a licensed doctor of chiropractic. Other scientific textbooks and reports have estimated the risk to be even more minute -- as low as one in 10 million treatments.
During their four-year post-graduate education, doctors of chiropractic are alerted to possible risk factors and taught when to modify their technique or refer a patient for other specialty care. Risk management is also a frequent topic in the continuing education seminars that most states require practicing chiropractors to attend annually.
"Chiropractic researchers have published dozens of studies in recent years that will help chiropractors identify the rare patients who have risk factors," notes Dr. Lauretti. "Studies recently published in the chiropractic literature have found that the risks associated with chiropractic treatments are less than or similar to the risks associated with other conservative treatments often used for similar conditions, such as common prescription and non-prescription medications. Other recently published and ongoing studies are testing the validity of pre-treatment screening tests, and devising strategies for even further minimizing the risks of chiropractic neck treatments." Dr. Lauretti adds that he performs neck adjustments on patients "thousands of times a year" in his practice, and also performs them on his wife and other loved ones. He also frequently receives neck adjustments himself.
When compared to the number of illnesses and deaths that will occur this year from the use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, the number of serious complications from chiropractic treatment is extremely low. A study published in the April 15, 1998 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that more than 2 million Americans become seriously ill every year from reactions to drugs that were correctly prescribed and taken; 106,000 Americans die annually from those side effects.
Complications from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) -- a group that includes prescription and non-prescription pain medications such as aspirin and ibuprofen -- are responsible for 16,500 deaths each year, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. To put this in perspective, approximately 16,500 people died of AIDS in the United States in 1998, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In addition, a more recent study conducted by the Institute of Medicine revealed that nearly 100,000 people die each year from medical mistakes made by physicians, pharmacists and other medical professionals.
"The time has come for the medical community and the media to focus their efforts on warning patients about common procedures with very real risks associated with them -- such as the inappropriate use of drugs and surgery," said Dr. Lauretti. "Chiropractic has been proven to be a safe and effective non-drug, non-surgical treatment for a variety of conditions, and tens of millions of satisfied chiropractic patients will attest to this fact."
For more information on the safety and efficacy of chiropractic care, call the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) at 800-986-4636 or visit the Website at www.acatoday.com.