Rehabilitation of Torticollis in Children

Park, Joo Hyun; Kang, Sae Yoon; Kim, Jong Kil

Abstract

The primary treatment goal of torticollis is to prevent the craniofacial deformities, limitation of neck movements and long-term postural changes. In order to offer precise guidelines for the treatment of torticollis regarding the cosmetic and functional results, we analyzed 99 torticollis children retrospectively for the ages at diagnosis and the start of treatment, the duration of treatment, the problems at first visitation, and the size of sternocleidomastoid mass. These patients visited the department of rehabilitation medicine, Holy Family Hospital from April 1991 to June 1997. The results showed that there was no relation between the number of problems at first visitation and the age at the start of treatment, but the group with 1 problem had a significantly shorter duration of treatment than the groups with more than 4 problems. The ages at diagnosis and at the start of treatment for the patients with a palpable neck mass were younger than those of the patients without a neck mass. The duration of treatment was longer for the patients with a larger size of mass by the ultrasonography of the neck. The ages at diagnosis and at the start of treatment, and the duration of treatment were all younger and shorter in the cosmetically satisfactory group than those of the cosmeticlly unsatisfactory group. However there was no significant difference between the functionally satisfactory group and unsatisfactory group in the ages at diagnosis and at the start of treatment, and the duration of treatment. In conclusion, when the treatment of torticollis was started early, especially at less than 3 months old, better cosmetic results were obtained, even though functional results were relatively satisfactory by the proper rehabilitation treatments. We want to emphasize that it is important to detect and treat the torticollis as early as possible for the better cosmetic results.