| Objective: To present and comment critically on a series of six case reports where patients experienced transient syncope during the course of chiropractic assessment and/or treatment. Clinical Features: Syncope is a clinical complex in which the patient may experience a range of transient signs and symptoms including facial erythema, Iight-headedness, nausea, diaphoretic, pallor, loss of ability to respond to verbal commands, and perhaps loss of consciousness. The occurrence of syncope can be frightening to both the patient and the practitioner. Setting: One private practice of chiropractic in Victoria, Australia. The practitioner has over 15 years of practice experience and has maintained competency through continuous clinical practice and continuing education since graduation. Methodology: Purposive selection of patient files from within a defined time period, each file including at least one recorded episode of transient syncope; Intervention and Outcome:hfq patients received a level of assessment and evaluation befitting the responsibility of chiropractors registered in the state of Victoria, Australia, as primary contact, primary health care providers. The intervention in all cases was traditional chiropractic practice, including physical examination, directed orthopaedic and neurotoxic testing, documentation of findings and outcomes, and intervention in the traditional chiropractic manner of manual spinal adjustment and soft tissue technique. Conclusion: It appears that transient syncope is an event likely to be observed by practitioners of therapeutic intervention to the cervical spine. Given the pre-eminent role of chiropractors in this field and the current questioning of the value of predictive tests, one would reasonably expect the various professional bodies and funding agencies to place further formal investigation of transient syncope and related clinical events high on the chiropractic research agenda. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; full text by (print only) subscription.
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