Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/230373
PATHOLOGY PERSPECTIVES didn't help either. It was only then that she told me she had been diagnosed with cervical stenosis." When a mistake happens, be prepared to report it to your profession. If our profession is going to earn a place alongside other health-care providers, we need to be willing to speak out when we have a negative outcome. 46 massage & bodywork january/february 2014 ADVERSE EFFECTS: ON THE RECORD Because the previous stories are anecdotes, they are not in the official or academic literature about possible adverse effects of massage. However, a quick search in PubMed for "massage therapy adverse effects" yields plenty of examples. One article provides a systematic review (a wide-scale compilation) of adverse events related to massage between 2002 and 2012.1 It compiles data on 18 reports of significant injuries that include acute paraplegia, bladder rupture, cervical cord injury, ischemic stroke, pulmonary embolism, rhabdomyolysis, vertebral artery dissection, and many others. Most of these are case reports (that is, a description of a single event), and one is a case series involving many clients with the same intervention. In five of the events, the massage was provided by a trained massage therapist; the other events involved untrained or unqualified people, or did not specify who provided the massage. It is interesting to note that four of the reports (including a case series involving 238 clients) involved massage devices rather than hands-on work. This is a useful article, because it suggests that good training is a way to avoid these unfortunate outcomes. Several other published reports of damage related to massage are available. One described a deeptissue massage causing spinal accessory neuropathy, which led to trapezius weakness and scapular winging.2 Another reported a case in which shiatsu massage collapsed and fragmented stents located in the iliac arteries.3 Interestingly, this was found during surgical follow up; the client had no signs or symptoms and his leg circulation was normal. In a less successful case, a client with some ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament was given a massage. "The massage was performed in such a manner that the massage therapist pressed the patient's back with the palm and then pushed it in an upward direction from the thoracic to the cervical in a prone position."4 This appears to have led to an incomplete spinal cord injury, surgery, and long-term loss of function.