Question
Hi i need to know if a Chiropractic adjustment can upset a neck.
MY husband saw a chiro 3 years ago and after that he suffered headaches and a sore neck ever since,
He was a very healthy man and didnt drink or smoke.
In Now he took a very low fall off of a plank onto the ground on the top of his head with a helmet on and he diplaced his C2 and severed his spine.
I am in shock and pain with the loss of my husband and best friend and need to know could the Chiro have done damage to my husbands neck when he did the manipulation.
Please help.

Answer
Christine,

I'm sorry to hear of the death of your husband due to a traumatic fall.

To answer your question regarding whether or not there can be deleterious side effects of a chiropractic manipulation, and specifically, to the neck, the answer is, yes, of course. There is always a risk of potential side effects to any therapy, including massage, physiotherapy, exercise, or over-the-counter or prescription medication.

Chiropractors try to minimize adverse reactions to manipulation, mobilization, or manual therapy by trying to identify higher-risk patients based on their history, symptoms and physical examination, and choose appropriate treatment modalities based on the patient's clinical presentation and responses to treatment.  

The best evidence that we have to date says that the most common side effects of manipulation of the neck include localized stiffness and soreness, which is almost always temporary. This is most likely due to the increased sensitivity of the tissues around the area which is being manipulated. One of the best studies to identify post-manipulation problems (versus post-mobilization problems) as a result of manual spinal therapy was a 2005 study published in the medical journal Spine (Hurwtiz et al. "Frequency and clinical predictors of adverse reactions to chiropractic care in the UCLA neck pain study"). The authors of that study suggested that chiropractors use a graduated implementation of joint mobilization leading to joint manipulation, especially in patients with severe neck pain, to minimize the possibility of adverse reactions to manual therapy.

The difference between joint mobilization and manipulation has to do with the degree, depth, and speed of force or energy employed in movement of the joint.

More serious side effects, such as neurological or vascular accidents, are exceedingly rare, and while estimates as to their frequency may vary depending upon the study in question, the best evidence we have to date suggests that there is no greater risk with chiropractic manipulation than with non-treatment or with performance of normal daily activities, as it is believed that most of the individuals who suffer a vascular event post-manipulation of the neck appear to have had the process already in progress prior to the manipulation being performed. Researchers reached this conclusion in a number of studies after looking at larger numbers of people who reported an adverse event after undergoing chiropractic manipulation of the neck, versus case reports which focus on one specific case in which an adverse event was reported post-manipulation. This is not to say that an individual may never suffer a serious side-effect of chiropractic manipulation; the existing literature suggest that it just happens to be a very rare occurrence, and this continues to be an area of continued research and clinical investigation.

So to put the matter in some perspective, there are far more reported adverse reactions to taking over-the-counter pain relievers each year than there are reported adverse reactions to chiropractic manipulation.

I hope that this helps to answer your question.