The American Chiropractic Association reports that there are over 75,000 chiropractors in the US treating over 35,000,000 Americans every year.

Presumably, most of those visits do not result in negative health consequences. However, occasionally patients are harmed by chiropractic care, just as with other treatment modalities.

It has been known for some time, for example, that “high-velocity, low-amplitude” (HVLA) cervical (neck) manipulation can cause arterial dissections, which can lead to serious consequences such as stroke or death if not timely diagnosed and treated.

However, a new case report published by the American Journal of Ophthalmology found a connection between HVLA manipulation and damage in the eye, specifically the retina.

The report notes that the adjustment can cause not only indirect harm to the eye by occluding an artery providing blood to the retina, but can also more directly damage the eye. This can occur both with bleeding in the eye, as well as “posterior vitreous detachment”, where the manipulation causes the vitreous humor (the jellylike tissue filing the eyeball behind the lens) detaches from the retina.

Of course, complications such as dissection or vision problems are unusual. Still, this report supports the position held by many health care related associations that HVLA neck manipulations are not risk free, and carry small but known risks of potentially catastrophic consequences.

You can read the full article here:

[Preretinal hemorrhages following chiropractor neck manipulation](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451993617303195?via%3Dihub#!)