Safety of SMT in the Cervical Spine & Chiropractors’ Beliefs Around the Need for X-rays

The Chiropractic Forward Podcast: Evidence-based Chiropractic Advocacy

CF 277: Safety of SMT in the Cervical Spine & Chiropractors’ Beliefs Around the Need for X-rays

Today we’re going to talk about the safety of SMT in the cervical spine & Chiropractors’ beliefs around the need for x-rays.

But first, here’s that sweet sweet bumper music

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OK, we are back and you have found the Chiropractic Forward Podcast where we are making evidence-based chiropractic fun, profitable, and accessible while we make you and your patients better all the way around. We’re the fun kind of research. Not the stuffy, high-brow, look down your nose at people kind of research. We’re research talk over a couple of beers. I’m Dr. Jeff Williams and I’m your host for the Chiropractic Forward podcast. I’m so glad you’re spending your time with us learning together. Chiropractors – I’m hiring at my personal clinic. I need talent, ambition, drive, smart, and easy to get along with associates. If this is you and Amarillo, TX is your speed, send me an email at [e-mail] If you haven’t yet I have a few things you should do.

• Go to Amazon and check our my book called The Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic: A Unique Journey Into The Research. It’s excellent educational resource for you AND your patients. It saves you time putting talks together or just staying current on research. It’s categorized into sections so the information is easy to find and written in a way that is easy to understand for everyone. It’s on Amazon. That’s the Remarkable Truth About Chiropractic by Jeff Williams.
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You have found yourself smack dab in the middle of Episode 277 Now if you missed last week’s episode, we talked about Subacromial Dry Needling & Lumbar Discs With Stenosis Present. Make sure you don’t miss that info. Keep up with the class.

On the personal end of things…..

I have just returned from the Tampa mastermind meeting so this likely will be shorter than normal. Mostly because after I’ve been gone a few days, the stuff has piled up and I’m usually tied up trying to get my desk cleared off and back to business as usually. The youz as the kids would say. Tampa was good stuff, we had a talk from the Scheduling Institute and I was really impressed.

Wow.

I think this is a path I need to be going down and I think that path should start yesterday. Eye opening is just the most minimal way to put it. We have hot seat sessions where one of us sits in the middle and tells the group their issues then the entire group asks questions and tries to offer help and advice to solve and move past those problems.

We have Each One Teach One sessions to help learn what’s working for others in their practices. Kevin Christie and myself presented a 30 minute spot on ChatGPT.

Lindsey Mumma did one on niching your practice. And Ben Fergus did one on automating his front desk and check-in procedures. He’s done a lot of interesting things with his practice. Again, get yourself into a Mastermind or create one. It’s outstanding. Kevin is looking to maybe start another, separate group for the West Coast and Mountain area so keep your eyes and ears out. We’ll probably have Kevin on the podcast in the near future talking about that as well. Let’s get at it.

Item #1

The first one today is called “Safety of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine: a prospective national survey” by Haymo W Thiel, Jennifer E Bolton, Sharon Docherty, Jane C Portlock and published in PUBMED on October 1, 2007.

Why They Did It

To estimate the risk of serious and relatively minor adverse events following chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine by a sample of U.K. chiropractors.

How They Did It

• They studied treatment outcomes obtained from 19,722 patients.

• Manipulation was defined as the application of a high-velocity/low-amplitude or mechanically assisted thrust to the cervical spine.

• Serious adverse events, defined as “referred to hospital A&E and/or severe onset/worsening of symptoms immediately after treatment and/or resulted in persistent or significant disability/incapacity,” and minor adverse events reported by patients as a worsening of presenting symptoms or onset of new symptoms, were recorded immediately, and up to 7 days, after treatment.

What They Found

• Data were obtained from 28,807 treatment consultations and 50,276 cervical spine manipulations. There were no reports of serious adverse events.

• This translates to an estimated risk of a serious adverse event of, at worse approximately 1 per 10,000 treatment consultations immediately after cervical spine manipulation, approximately 2 per 10,000 treatment consultations up to 7 days after treatment and approximately 6 per 100,000 cervical spine manipulations.

• Minor side effects with a possible neurologic involvement were more common. The highest risk immediately after treatment was fainting/dizziness/light-headedness in, at worse approximately 16 per 1000 treatment consultations.

• Up to 7 days after treatment, these risks were headache in, at worse approximately 4 per 100, numbness/tingling in upper limbs in, at worse approximately 15 per 1000 and fainting/dizziness/light-headedness in, at worse approximately 13 per 1000 treatment consultations.

Wrap It Up

Although minor side effects following cervical spine manipulation were relatively common, the risk of a serious adverse event, immediately or up to 7 days after treatment, was low to very low. Before getting to the next one, I have to tell you, Dr. Chris Howson, the inventor of the Drop Release tool re-activated the code! Use the code HOTSTUFF upon purchase at droprelease.com & get $50 off your purchase. Would you like to spend 5-10 minutes doing pin and stretch and all of that? Or would you rather use a drop release to get the same or similar results in just a handful of seconds. I love it, my patients love it, and I know yours will too. droprelease.com and the discount code is HOTSTUFF. Go do it.

Item #2

Our last one this week is called, “Examining Clinical Opinion and Experience Regarding Utilization of Plain Radiography of the Spine: Evidence from Surveying the Chiropractic Profession” by Philip A. Arnone, Steven J. Kraus, Derek Farmen, Douglas F. Lightstone, Jason Jaeger 4 and Christine Theodossis and published in Journal of Clinical Medicine on 10 March 2023. Hot potato!

Why They Did It

• Plain Radiography of the spine (PROTS) is utilized in many forms of healthcare including the chiropractic profession; however, the literature reflects conflicting opinions regarding utilization and value.
• Despite being an essential part of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP), few studies assess Doctors of Chiropractic (DCs) clinical opinions and experience regarding the utilization of Plain Radiography of the spine in practice.

How They Did It

• In creating the survey for this study, the authors intended to be consistent with Evidence-Based Practice and developed a series of 11 questions to adequately reflect the clinical opinion and experience of the US DCs on the utilization of Plain Radiography of the spine in a chiropractic clinical setting.

• The survey included a variety of both Likert and binary response options that could accurately reflect each DCs’ clinical opinions and experience rather than solely binary response options.

• Many aspects of the clinicians’ decision process were considered during the process, including why practitioners would or would not order Plain Radiography of the spine, what value DCs attribute to Plain Radiography of the spine, how to adequately reflect DCs’ clinical opinion and experience of Plain Radiography of the spine as it relates to patient care, and issues related to plain radiography utilization safety and research.

What They Found

• There is an inverse relationship in the responses between DCs that do and do not utilize Plain Radiography of the spine in their practice; however, the clinical opinion of US DCs who utilized Plain Radiography of the spine in their practice assigns a high value to the utilization of Plain Radiography of the spine.

• These doctors believe it to be safe and that the DCs’ clinical experience is adequate for recommending Plain Radiography of the spine.

• In summary, 77.6% of these DCs indicated that Plain Radiography of the spine has value beyond the identification of pathology, 79.1% indicate that x-rays important regarding biomechanical analysis of the spine, 83.0% noted they are vital to chiropractic practice and 84.7% believe they aid in measuring outcomes.

Wrap It Up

• This survey provides the most extensive insight into the clinical opinion of the US chiropractic profession regarding Plain Radiography of the spine and suggests that the majority of the DCs consider utilization of x-rays to have value beyond the identification of pathology, to be vital to chiropractic practice and essential to biomechanical analysis.

• The DCs who utilized Plain Radiography of the spine only to rule out pathology in the presence of red flags are, in fact, statistical outliers in this study and may represent a minority of US DCs.

• A majority of the DCs also consider the doctors’ clinical experience and expertise, coupled with patient preferences, to be appropriate for recommending Plain Radiography of the spine.

• Most DCs in this survey found that sharing spinal radiographic findings with the patient is beneficial for patient outcomes. All participants in the survey believed that patient outcomes would benefit from continued research regarding appropriate utilization of Plain Radiography of the spine.

• The results of this survey clearly indicate the value of Plain Radiography of the spine reflected by DCs and demonstrate the need for continued research to help understand how this value can affect the quality of care, conservative correction of spinal alignment and patient health.

Alright, that’s it. Keep on keepin’ on. Keep changing our profession from your corner of the world. The world needs evidence-based, patient-centered practitioners driving the bus. The profession needs us in the ACA and involved in leadership of state associations. So quit griping about the profession if you’re doing nothing to make it better. Get active, get involved, and make it happen. Let’s get to the message. Same as it is every week.

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The Message

I want you to know with absolute certainty that when Chiropractic is at its best, you can’t beat the risk vs reward ratio because spinal pain is primarily a movement-related pain and typically responds better to movement-related treatment rather than chemical treatments like pills and shots.

When compared to the traditional medical model, research and clinical experience show us patients can get good to excellent results for headaches, neck pain, back pain, and joint pain to name just a few.

It’s safe and cost-effective can decrease surgeries & disability and we do it through conservative, non-surgical means with minimal hassle to the patient.

And, if the patient treats preventatively after initial recovery, we can usually keep it that way while raising the overall level of health!

Key Point:

At the end of the day, patients should have the guarantee of having the best treatment that offers the least harm. When it comes to non-complicated musculoskeletal complaints….

That’s Chiropractic!

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We can’t wait to connect with you again next week. From the Chiropractic Forward Podcast flight deck, this is Dr. Jeff Williams saying upward, onward, and forward.

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About the Author & Host

Dr. Jeff Williams – Fellow of the International Academy of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine (FIANM) and Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Professionals (DABFP) – Chiropractor in Amarillo, TX, Chiropractic Advocate, Author, Entrepreneur, Educator, Businessman, Marketer, and Healthcare Blogger & Vlogger

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