Fatal incident during manual therapy (Vojta's method) in a 3 months old infant.

Detailed clinical and neuropathological report on a fatal incident during t he first manual therapy according to Vojta conducted in a 3 months old baby : during forced active rotation and head retraction the baby suffered from a bleeding into the adventitia of both her vertebral arteries at the level of C1 prompting ischemia of the caudal brainstem with subarachnoid haemorrh age around. It has to be suggested that similar cases already have occurred but have not been reported yet. There might be a time lag between the perf ormance of physiotherapy and the beginning of neurologic symptoms. The risk s of manual therapy in children will be discussed.