Views on radiography use for patients with acute low back pain among chiropractors in an Ontario community.

Hansen D, Belmont L, Fairbanks V, Fairbanks R, Jones G, Hickman P, Coleman RR.  Letter to the Editor.  J Manipulative Physiol Ther.  March 2004;27:218-19.

To the Editor:

Thank you for allowing a number of the members of the Grant-Adams County Chiropractic Society the opportunity to write a letter regarding the article, “Views on Radiography Use for Patients With Acute Low Back Pain Among Chiropractors in an Ontario Community” by Ammendolia et al.1  The Grant-Adams County Chiropractic society is a small group, consisting of 9 members, which holds 10 evening discussions per year to discuss selected articles from the scientific literature relating to the practice of chiropractic.  A recent discussion centered on Dr. Ammendolia’s article.  Two of the primary points of this article appear to be that doctors of chiropractic are utilizing radiographs more often than is appropriate and for reasons that are not in keeping with current scientific evidence.  We would like to respectfully disagree on 3 lines of reasoning.