| Objective: To present a case of a patient presenting to the University Outpatient’s Clinic for chiropractic spinal manipulation with occipitalisation and to discuss the relevance of this condition to the chiropractor. Design: A case report & literature review. Setting: A chiropractic intern outpatient clinic. Patient: A 62-yr old male patient presented with a two week history of left posterior thigh pain. The history revealed that the patient had also had laminectomy at C3, C4, C5 and C6 performed 4 years earlier. The patient declined to reveal the exact reason for this procedure, arguing that he had come to the clinic for low-back related problems only. Intervention: Plain film imaging was performed on the cervical and lumbar regions. Discussion: The clinical significance of this finding to the chiropractor is discussed along with a literature review and radiological classification of the condition. Conclusion: Chiropractors need to be aware that this potentially serious condition exists in one in every hundred patients and presents an absolute contraindication to spinal adjustment in this region. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; full text by subscription (print only).
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