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Home › Articles › Illnesses, Diseases & Disorders › Congenital Muscular Torticollis

Congenital Muscular Torticollis

How Much Do You Know About This Musculoskeletal Anomaly?

By Lisa A. Goldstein

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Jackson Volchok's head was becoming misshapen from his tendency to sleep with his head turned only to the left. This meant the left side of his skull was flattening and his facial features were being affected. His parents tried flipping him around in his crib so he slept with his head at a different end each night, but he still kept his head turned to the left.

Jackson's pediatrician first noticed the problem at his 3-month checkup. When he told Jackson's mother, Jessica Volchok of Lomita, Calif., that her son had torticollis, the term was unfamiliar to her.

Simply put, torticollis means twisted neck, according to the National Infant Torticollis Association (NITA). There are about 80 different causes of torticollis, but the most common in infants is congenital muscular torticollis.

According to Patricia Everett, president of the NITA and mother of a 6-year-old who was diagnosed at 6 months, research studies have citied torticollis as occuring in one in 300 births. "It is the third most common musculoskeletal anomaly after hip dysplasia and clubfoot," Everett says.

Diagnosing Torticollis
Most infants can be diagnosed at 2 months of age, when the neck muscles become more developed and the head tilting becomes clear, Everett says. However, many are diagnosed later because of a lack of education in the primary healthcare provider.

Symptoms of torticollis include "head tilt, poor neck range of motion, tight band in neck, asymmetry in face or head," says Dr. Fernando Burstein, medical director of the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Center for Craniofacial Disorders. Dr. Burstein says forceps, traumatic delivery, crowding in utero (more common in twins) and anything that traumatizes muscle can all cause torticollis.

The key to torticollis is that most cases are benign unless they are causing head remolding or are associated with developmental delay, says Dr. Deborah Gaebler-Spira, a physiatrist and associate professor of pediatrics and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Feinberg Northwestern School of Medicine and a staff physician at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.


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