Comparison the Effects of Manual and Instrumental Chiropractic Spinal Manipulation on Vertebrobasilar and Internal Carotis Arteries in Healthy Population

After lumbar pain, neck pain is the most common cause of patients needing chiropractic care; the second most common cause of spinal manipulation use (1). Manipulation and mobilization are commonly used by chiropractors, osteopaths and manipulative physiotherapists in the treatment of neck pain. Many studies show that the Activator instrument is also used for this purpose in the chiropractic profession (2) There are several published case reports that relate to neck manipulation to vertebral artery dissection and stroke. The prevailing theory is that the neck extension and / or rotation may damage the vertebral artery in the foramen transversarium, especially at the C1-C2 level (2). However, most cases of extracranial vertebral artery dissection are thought to be spontaneous (3).

In the literature, there have been no studies investigating the effects of instrument-assisted spinal manipulation on vertebrobasilar and internal carotis arteries. the aim of this study to compare the effect of manual and instrumental spinal manipulation on blood flow parameters of vertebrobasilar and internal carotis arteries on healthy persons which have mechanical neck pain and asymptomatic in vertebrobasilar insufficiency test.