What are the risks of manual treatment of the spine? A scoping review for clinicians

Table 1 Eligibility criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies

Criteria for study inclusion	Criteria for study exclusion
Participants
• Patients receiving spinal manual treatment • Health or legal professionals reporting upon patients receiving spinal manual treatment
Study design	Article type
• Studies whose primary aims address risks of care &/or adverse events & that are: • Meta-analyses • Systematic reviews^a • Controlled studies • Surveys • Cohort studies • Case reports^b • Scientific reports^c	• Reviews (without a systematic approach)^d • Editorials, commentaries or opinion articles^d • Letters^e, correspondences or author responses • Studies whose primary aims address clinical outcomes (but may report occurrence of adverse events)^f • Study protocols • Conference abstracts^g
Intervention	Intervention
• Spinal manual treatment (manipulation or mobilisation), provided by a health professional	• Patient self-manipulation • Spinal manual treatment provided by a lay-person
Outcomes	Outcomes
• Adverse events	• Biomechanical or physiological responses as proxy adverse effects

^aReviews describing a systematically approached methodology
^bPublished as articles, letters or conference abstracts (enabling full breadth of types of adverse events to be evaluated)
^cDescribing a rigorous methodology
^dWould contribute limited new insights to the literature reviewed
^eUnless presenting a new case-report
^fLimited utility for gaining new insights if not a primary consideration in study design
^gExcluding case reports, where conference abstracts were included

ISSN: 2045-709X