Strain of the Vertebral Artery During Passive Neck Movements and Spinal Manipulation of the Cervical Spine: an observational study.

Neck pain is a common condition, and a frequent treatment is chiropractic cervical spinal manipulation therapy (cSMT). However, cervical spinal manipulations have been associated with excessive cervical artery elongations, allegedly causing arterial dissection leading to stroke. The primary purpose of this study was to quantify the total vertebral artery elongations during cSMT, and secondarily, quantify the vertebral artery elongations during the pre-manipulative orientation of the head and neck and the subsequent elongations during the actual thrust … ABSTRACT