To determine the biomechanical characteristics of five clinically common methods of cervical spine manipulation.
Descriptive study.
Human Performance Lab, University of Calgary.
Five volunteer practitioners treating symptomatic patients from their own clinical populations.
Five commonly used methods of cervical spine manipulation: lateral break (LAT), Gonstead (GON), Activator (ACT), toggle (TOG), rotation (ROT).
Mean thrust duration (msec), normalized mean peak force (N), slope (N/msec), force profile (graphic representation of the above values.
Outcome measures for each manipulative technique were as follows: LAT = normalized mean peak force of 102.2 N at 86.7 msec, GON = 109.8 N at 91.9 msec, ACT = 40.9 N at 31.8 msec, TOG = 117.6 N at 47.5 msec, ROT = 40.5 N at 79.1 msec.
The observed differences and similarities in force profiles between the five techniques studied here may partly be the manifestation of how a particular technique delivers force to the cervical spine. The clinical significance of force profile characterization is not yet known.
J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 1993 Nov-Dec;16(9):573-7. [PMID:8133191]
Author information: Kawchuk GN, Herzog W. University of Calgary, Faculty of Physical Education, Alberta, Canada.
