All the cases were within 24 hours of manipulation. The researchers, from the department of complementary medicine at Exeter University headed by Professor Edzard Ernst, are now planning a long-term study to establish the true scale of the danger from spinal manipulation. Clare Stevinson, who led the pilot study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, said it was only manipulation of the neck that carried the risk, and it seemed to be higher when the head was rotated sharply. The British Association of Chiropractors said the study did not examine the profession or qualifications of those doing the manipulations, nor why they were done, and did not check the medical histories of the patients affected. In other studies around the world, the risk has been shown to be between one and three per million manipulations.
People twisting their neck to reverse a car can suffer the same effect.
The association would welcome robust and thorough research into this subject.