Age or injury-related compression and inflammation of a cervical nerve root can be difficult to treat in a primary care practice. Medications are mostly ineffective, and imaging findings can often be misleading. This study evaluated the improvement of patients either receiving SMT (spinal manipulative therapy) by a chiropractor, or nerve-root injections (CNRI). The results show that SMT dramatically outperformed CNRI in providing improvement at 3 months. Of particular interest was how the subset of patients with sub-acute and chronic pain (which is notoriously difficult to treat) had substantial benefits from chiropractic care.

Jeremy Boethin Dec 19