Association between spinal manipulative therapy and cervical artery dissection in patients with neck pain or headache: a retrospective cohort study
Robert J Trager, Anthony N Baumann, Collin M Labak, Kelsey L Lewis, Jaime Abraham Perez, Christine M Goertz, Andres Schuster · 2026
Read Association between spinal manipulative therapy and cervical artery dissection in patients with neck pain or headache: a retrospective cohort study by Robert J Trager, Anthony N Baumann, Collin M Labak, Kelsey L Lewis, Jaime Abraham Perez, Christine M Goertz, Andres Schuster (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13576314.txt.
Description
Robert J Trager, Anthony N Baumann, and their co-authors tested whether spinal manipulation raises the risk of a torn neck artery. Their 2026 study uses United States health records from 2010 to 2025. A tear in a neck artery can follow neck pain care, but people may seek care for the tear's own early pain, which can fake a link.
Adults with new neck pain or headache who got chiropractor led neck manipulation were matched with similar patients given an ibuprofen prescription. Those with past stroke or artery tears were left out. The team compared tear rates within thirty days, by subtype, plus overall risk gaps and control outcomes. Matching aimed to strip out the bias that comes from why patients sought care.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Robert J Trager, Anthony N Baumann, Collin M Labak, Kelsey L Lewis, Jaime Abraham Perez, Christine M Goertz, Andres Schuster |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |