First, it should not be done to describe an already existing concept or term in chiropractic. Second, it should not be done to describe a medical entity. Chiropractic does not address itself to medical entities. It is not that we do not recognize their existence or perhaps their need to be addressed. It is just that they are not in the purview of the chiropractor.
Vertebral subluxation is all that chiropractors address themselves to.
Therefore I must conclude that vertebral subluxation complex is identical to vertebral subluxation. From what I have read I have gotten the impression that VSC is attempting to describe the patho-physiological changes in the spine and surrounding structures that are thought to result from the presence of a vertebral subluxation over a brief or extended period of time. Whether these changes do occur or whether they are partially or totally the result of an osseous insult to the nervous system at the vertebral level is irrelevant. That is not the practice of chiropractic. It is the practice of medicine.