The need for a chiropractic adverse events reporting system in Australia

To the Editor: Following media reports of a complaint to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency regarding a 4-month-old baby’s neck fracture following chiropractic treatment for apparent torticollis,1 the president of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia stated that “not a single serious adverse event has been recorded in the literature (worldwide) involving a qualified chiropractor treating a child since 1992”.2 However, an examination of the medical literature on adverse events related to chiropractic reveals an interesting story. A PubMed search for “chiropractic adverse event(s)” identifies 18 primary research papers since 1992 that could be classified as examining adverse events, none of which were Australian.