Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze hip, shoulder, and elbow movements of a doctor of chiropractic during performance of side-posture chiropractic spinal manipulation.
Methods: An experienced chiropractor performed lumbar spinal manipulation (ie, chiropractic adjustment) on 10 participants. An inertial measurement unit system was used to record angular motions, and data were analyzed in Excel to identify positional angles at set-up and thrust times, and to generate graphs of time series plots for qualitative assessment of movement patterns.
Results: Most motion patterns were qualitatively similar between participants for each joint and plane of motion, though angular magnitudes were often different; but times of thrust were not consistent within the patterns. Positional angles for the left and right shoulders were asymmetrical, as were those for the left and right hips, reflecting their different roles in patient stabilization and thrust. The right elbow displayed only a few degrees of extension during the thrust, reflecting its role in transferring the force from the chiropractor's center of gravity ("body drop"), rather than the upper extremity solely generating the thrust.
Conclusions: Most motions had thrust-to-thrust consistency in their patterns, despite trial-to-trial differences in angular magnitudes, suggesting that a DC's performance is repeatable for spinal manipulation. Measurements might be different for other DCs according to differences in professional education, treatment tables of different heights, or patients with different body sizes.
Author keywords: Chiropractic; Kinematics; Manipulation; Posture.
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