Deformational Plagiocephaly: Recommendations for Future Research

Abstract

SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE Finding articles written on the subject of deformational plagiocephaly can be difficult because terminology has been inconsistently used throughout the medical literature. The term plagiocephaly has been generically used to describe distortion of the cranium that occurs from both premature fusions of the cranial sutures (synostotic plagiocephaly) as well as from external molding forces (deformational plagiocephaly). Only rece ntly has a clear differentiation between these two conditions been made, and it is now recognized that many of the articles previously reporting surgical intervention for craniosynostosis were really cases of misdiagnosed deformational plagiocephaly. 1–7 The deformational form of plagiocephaly has also been referred to in the medical literature under many different names, including positional plagiocephaly, nonsynostotic plagiocephaly, plagiocephaly without synostosis (PWS), occipital plagiocephaly, posterior plagiocephaly, benign position molding, functional lambdoid synostosis, skull molding, and flat head syndrome. Additionally, many early studies mention cranial deformation that occurred as a consequence of congenital muscular torticollis, scoliosis, neurologic issues, and so on, but never specifically use the term plagiocephaly. A Medline search will typically not identify these studies, and only careful review of cited references has turned up these older, yet relevant, articles. Review of the literature will confirm that the majority of articles focus on either the etiology