What are the symptoms of torticollis in children?

Torticollis in children is a kind of head-to-side deviation disease, which generally refers to congenital muscular torticollis caused by contracture of one sternocleidomastoid muscle. The direct cause of this disease is contracture and shortening caused by sternocleidomastoid muscle fibrosis.

Children's torticollis can exist after birth, or it can appear in the second or third week after birth. The symptom is that the head leans to the sick side and the chin turns to the opposite side. A hard and painless spindle tumor was found by palpation, which was consistent with the direction of sternocleidomastoid muscle. It gradually increases within 2 ~ 4 weeks, reaching the size of an adult thumb, and begins to retract and gradually disappear within 2 ~ 6 months. Some patients will not leave torticollis; However, if many patients are not treated, the muscles are replaced by fibrous cords, and torticollis may occur in the head due to the traction of contracture muscles. The head and face may be deformed due to abnormal position, the muscles are shortened, the length of the side from top to bottom is shortened, and the face is widened. With the development of bones, the asymmetry of the face will be aggravated. The distance from the corner of the eye to the corner of the mouth is shorter than that on the other side.

If children find torticollis, if it is not corrected in time, the soft tissue of the affected side can be further shortened with the physical growth, the contracture of the deep cervical fascia becomes thicker, the scalene muscle becomes shorter, carotid sheath and blood vessels contract, and finally the skull develops asymmetrically, resulting in scoliosis of the cervical vertebra and even the upper thoracic vertebra.