Abstract
Patients with dropped head syndrome (DHS) show severe cervical kyphosis, i.e., chin-on-chest deformity, and their activities of daily living are impaired considerably. However, the therapeutics for DHS, especially conservative treatment, have not been fully established. A 75-year-old woman suffered from DHS, which she developed from neck pain due to cervical spondylosis. Examinations showed atrophy and dysfunction of her cervical extensor muscles. For this patient, we created a special program of physical therapy based on the concept of athletic rehabilitation and provided her the athletic rehabilitation-based physical therapy (AR-PT). After starting AR-PT, the patient's neck pain was relieved. She recovered from DHS, and the atrophy of her cervical extensor muscles improved. This study suggests that our program of AR-PT improves cervical extensor muscle insufficiency in patients with DHS and corrects their cervical kyphosis.
Highlights
Patients with dropped head syndrome (DHS) show severe cervical kyphosis, i.e., chin-on-chest deformity
DHS develops from several etiologies, including extrapyramidal tract disease, e.g., Parkinson’s disease, motor neuron disease, neuromuscular diseases such as myasthenia gravis and myositis, spine diseases such as cervical spondylotic myelopathy and cervical spondylotic amyotrophy, and conditions following cervical spine surgery [1,2,3,4,5]
We present a patient with DHS, in whom DHS developed originating from neck pain due to cervical spondylosis
Summary
Patients with dropped head syndrome (DHS) show severe cervical kyphosis, i.e., chin-on-chest deformity. They cannot preserve forward vision, and their activities of daily living (ADL) are impaired considerably [1, 2]. We present a patient with DHS, in whom DHS developed originating from neck pain due to cervical spondylosis. For this patient, we created a special program of physical therapy based on the concept of athletic rehabilitation and provided her with the athletic rehabilitation-based physical therapy (AR-PT) [12, 13]. After starting the AR-PT, the patient’s neck pain was relieved and her DHS was improved
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