Chiropractic Neck Manipulation and Cervical Artery Dissections / Strokes: The Evidence

Cervical artery neck dissections are a known though uncommon complication of neck manipulation or rapid rotational force applied to the neck, particularly in an extended position.

Cervical artery dissections occur in an estimated 1:20,000 neck manipulations but there are LOTS of manipulations performed each day .

Yet despite this evidence, chiropractors continue to practice rapid neck manipulation for the “neck cracking” effect.

I have received a lot of push back over the suggestion to never allow a chiropractor to manipulate your neck. So let’s look over the evidence.

From Dr. Josh Farkas at EMCrit

This has been discussed in the the scientific literature since the 1990s, so here’s some of the evidence:

Vertebral artery dissection after a chiropractor neck manipulation