Two Cases of Sternomastoid Tumor

Oh, Young Suk; Seo, Jeung Min; Choi, Byoung Yoon; Kim, Sang Hyun

Abstract

Sternomastoid tumor has long been recognized as a peculiar fibrous growth of the sternocleidomastoid muscle that usually appears during first several weeks of life. Sternomastoid tumor has often been referred to as "congenital torticollis" or "congenital muscular torticollis" because it is often associated with muscular torticollis. Some authors prefer to discuss them separately as either "sternomastoid tumor" when mass is palpable, or "muscular torticollis" when only tightness of sternomastoid muscle is present. Although it is disputed whether sternomastoid tumor will lead to muscular torticollis, 1/4-1/3 numbers of sternomastoid tumor does progress to muscular torticollis. However, muscular torticollis may occur in children without history of a mass in the sternocleidomastoid muscle. We present two cases of sternomastoid tumor that is combined with torticollis, one case was treated by physiotherapy and the other by surgery.