| Objective: To discuss the effect of chiropractic care on a patient’s cervical coupled range of motion after receiving chiropractic care, and measured using the Ascension Technologies Flock of Birds magnetic motion tracking unit. Clinical Features: A 37-year-old male patient presented with complaints of neck and left leg stiffness. His history included compression fractures at T8 and T9, which were caused by a motor vehicle collision 20 years prior to his visit. Additional symptoms included right shoulder pain on cervical left lateral flexion. Intervention and Outcome: Management consisted of full spine chiropractic adjustments. Three-dimensional ranges of motion were analyzed using the Flock of Birds motion tracking unit. During 3 office visits, all three cardinal motions improved, there was a smoothing of the coupled motion curves and shoulder symptoms subsided. Discussion: The above findings indicate that changes in cervical ROM have occurred following chiropractic adjustments, with a trend toward improvement, and show that these changes may be more complex than a simple increase in a range presumed to have been restricted. Because this is a single patient case, and was actually a pilot for a larger study, no hard conclusions can be reached from this single case. However, this study is a small step toward further understanding of changes in range of motion before and after chiropractic adjustment. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher. |
