What is the correct sleeping position and treatment for torticollis

Torticollis is very easy to distinguish from normal people, but it is not easy to diagnose in infancy. The reason is that infants like to sleep with their heads on the side and their heads like to swing, which makes it difficult for parents to distinguish. In fact, torticollis should also be divided according to the onset of disease. Some are congenital, and some are acquired. If its development is prevented in the early stage, the deterioration of torticollis can be controlled. After the child is found to have torticollis, it can be corrected by correct posture. So what is the correct sleeping posture and treatment method for torticollis?

Torticollis can be divided into congenital muscular torticollis and congenital bony torticollis. The former is a congenital neck deformity with head and neck tilt caused by contracture of the sternocleidomastoid muscle on one side, which is quite common; the latter is a torticollis caused by malformation of cervical vertebrae bones, which is less common. The correct posture mainly depends on the patient's sleeping posture. It is not advisable to have a fixed sleeping posture. The head must be tilted to both sides, and the sleeping posture should be changed frequently to facilitate the correction of torticollis.

Its treatment methods are:

1. Non-surgical treatment

For children under six months old, non-surgical treatment can achieve satisfactory results. Therefore, once the diagnosis is made, treatment should be initiated as soon as possible. Non-surgical treatment methods include local hot compress, massage, bed rest and manual traction. The specific method of manual traction is: the mother places the child flat on her knees so that the child's neck is extended backward. The mother gently presses the child's chest with her left hand, holds the head and neck with her right hand, rotates the child's face to the affected side as much as possible, and rotates the occipital part to the acromion of the healthy side. The manipulation should be gentle during the operation so that the contracted sternocleidomastoid muscle can be stretched to a greater extent. When the child is lying in bed, he/she should lie in supine position and use a small sandbag to fix the head to the face with the face facing the affected side and the occipital part facing the healthy side.

2. Surgical treatment

1. Indications and contraindications for surgery:

(1) Suitable for patients over six months old who have not responded to conservative treatment.

(2) Children under 12 years old with obvious torticollis deformity.

(3) For children over 12 years old who have mild facial deformities, surgical treatment may also be considered.

(4) For adults, since the deformity has existed for many years, not only will the facial deformity become more obvious after surgery, but the vision will also change due to the inability to adapt to the new body position after surgery. Therefore, surgery is usually not suitable.

2. There are mainly the following surgical methods.

(1) Sternocleidomastoid myotomy is one of the more commonly used surgical methods. A transverse incision is made on the clavicle to expose the sternal head and clavicular head of the sternocleidomastoid muscle. The parts above the attachment points are cut off respectively, and the surrounding fascia tissue is released. During the operation, care should be taken to avoid damaging the cervical artery, vein and nerves.

(2) Partial sternocleidomastoid muscle resection: For patients with obvious neck masses, the swollen segment of the sternocleidomastoid muscle can be removed.

(3) Complete sternocleidomastoid muscle resection: For adolescent patients, if the entire sternocleidomastoid muscle is scarred, the entire segment can be removed.

The correct sleeping position and treatment method of torticollis have been clearly introduced to everyone. Patients with torticollis should pay special attention to their posture when sleeping. If it is left-side torticollis, they should sleep more on the right side. Of course, they should not sleep on the other side completely. They should change their posture occasionally. Otherwise, their sleeping position should be changed. The effect of correcting torticollis by sleeping posture is not obvious, which is related to the severity of the patient's disease. The patient must undergo reasonable sleeping posture treatment while carrying out multiple treatment methods at the same time.