Cavitation sounds during spinal manipulative treatments
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Updated: Oct 15, 2026
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Published on: August 17, 2022
W Herzog1, Y T Zhang, P J Conway
1Faculty of Physical Education, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to confirm a practitioner's perception of cavitation during spinal manipulative therapy in a clinically relevant situation using accelerometer recordings.
Design:
Experimental study.
Setting:
Human Performance Laboratory and Sports Medicine Center, University of Calgary.
Participants:
Twenty-eight patients from a single practitioner's patient pool who had pain in the area of the thoracic spine.
Intervention:
Spinal manipulative treatment (SMT) on the transverse process of T4 using a reinforced unilateral contact and delivering a thrust in the posterior to anterior direction.
Main Outcome Measures:
Instantaneous acceleration signals obtained from the spinous process of T3 during SMT and the practitioner's perception if cavitation had occurred or not at the end of each treatment.
Conclusions:
It appears that cavitation may be measured during SMT using accelerometry and that a practitioner's perception of the occurrence of cavitation during SMT is very accurate.
