Management of Infants with Congenital Muscular Torticollis

AbstractCongenital muscular torticollis (CMT) is a deformation characterized by unilateral shortening of the sternocleidomastoid muscle resulting in lateral inclination of the neck associated with contralateral torsion. The purpose of this study was to assess the role of physical therapy in infants with CMT according to the age when treatment was started. The study was conducted in the Physical Therapy Clinic “Therapy” in Pristina for a period of 1 year from June 2016 to June 2017. The number of infants diagnosed with a CMT was 130 (71 girls and 59 boys). The infants were examined two times during the study period. The first visit was at the baseline and the second after the intervention. Three comparative groups are created based on time to start treatment. The infants were treated for 3 consecutive weeks with five sessions per week with the same therapeutic procedure. In the first examination of infants, there was no significant difference between the groups (chi-square test = 0.78, p = 0.08), whereas in the second examination after the 15 therapeutic sessions there was significant difference in the improvement of all the groups treated with physical therapy. Significant result was achieved in mean range of motion in infants of the group aged 3.1 to 6 months (mean = –35.9 ± 12.3, 95% confidence interval [CI], –39.3 to –32.4, p < 0.001) and in the mean side flexion of group aged 3.1 to 6 months (mean difference = –24.5 ± 7.9, 95% CI, –16.9 to –9.7, p < 0.001). While exercises in the 6- to 9-month age group have shown less success, because the time of appearance for physical therapy has been delayed (mean difference = –23.5 ± 10.7, 95% CI, –15.6 to –8.4, p < 0.001). From the results obtained from this study, we can conclude that the early start of the physical therapy gives much better results.