[Paraplegia in manual therapy. A case report]

A case of complete paraplegia due to a giant cell tumor of the dorsal spine following manual therapy without previous x-ray examination is reported. In a malpractice trial the question whether manual therapy is indicated or not had strictly to be denied. The question whether paraplegia due to a giant cell tumor could have been avoided when the tumor would have been detected radiologically was impossible to answer retrospectively. But, it is likely that with immediate surgical therapy after radiological detection of this lesions complete paraplegia should have been avoidable.