J Korean Soc Plast Reconstr Surg.  2009 Jan;36(1):38-45.

Treatment of Congenital Muscular Torticollis with Unipolar Release

• Park MC
• Song HS
• Kim CS
• Yim SY
• Park DH
• Pae NS
• Lee IJ

Abstract

PURPOSE
The congenital muscular torticollis is a neck deformity involving shortening of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, which is detected at birth or shortly after birth. This childhood disease is the third most common congenital musculoskeletal anomaly. The indication for surgery is a persistent head tilt with dificit of passive rotation and lateral bending of the neck and a tight band or tumor in the sternocleidomastoid muscle even after physical therapy. The purpose of this article is to report surgical outcomes with patients who had no or little response to physical therapy.
METHODS
Surgery was performed on 29 patients and their average age was 4.1 years(from 6 months to 20.1 years). The unipolar open release and partial myectomy were done in 28 cases and the muscle lengthening was done in 1 case. Physical therapy was started from postoperative seventh day. Follow-up period was ranged from 2 months to 5.4 years(mean follow-up, 20.4 months). Result: There were neither rotation nor lateral bending deficit after surgical treatment. Mild head tilt was noticed in 3 cases and residual bend was observed in 4 cases. The subjective assessments of surgical results by parents were excellent.
CONCLUSION
Our surgical outcome encourages the surgical treatment of congenital muscular torticollis for patients who failed to respond to physical therapy.

Keyword

Congenital muscular torticollis; Sternocleidomastoid muscle; Unipolar release and partial myectomy

MeSH Terms

Congenital Abnormalities
Follow-Up Studies
Head
Humans
Muscles
Neck
Parents
Parturition
Torticollis
Torticollis