High risk of motor development delay in children with congenital muscular torticollis

Abstract

Congenital muscular torticollis (CMT) is one of the most common congenital cervical deformities in children. CMT is a result of excessive shortening of the sternocleidomastoid muscle, which leads to an imbalance of muscle function around the neck. Previous studies found that postural torticollis may lead to motor development delay. However, few studies have been carried out on the study of CMT concurrent motor development delay. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of motor development delay in children with CMT. Peabody developmental motor scales-second edition (PDMS-2) was used to evaluate motor developmental levels in 54 children with CMT, whose average age was 8.50 ± 6.76 months (2∼27 months). PDMS-2 is an assessment tool to evaluate children motor development, consisting of 6 subscales, including reflection, posture, movement, object manipulation, grasping and visual motor integration, a total of 249 items. The final results were expressed by gross motor development quotient (GMQ), fine motor development quotient (FMQ). The higher the quotient, the better the motor development. The normal value of the developmental quotient is 90∼110, while below 90 representing motor development delay. The average GMQ and FMQ were 94.48 ± 9.69, 98.70 ± 8.26 respectively, and the GMQ was significantly lower than FMQ in children with CMT ( P < 0.01). Among them, 24 patients (37%) existed motor development delay, while 18 patients (33%) in gross motor development delay, and 6 patients (11%) in fine motor development delay. There was no significant difference of GMQ, FMQ in gender or different affected sides of CMT. Thirty-seven percent of children with CMT have motor development delay. Children with CMT have the separation of gross motor development and fine motor development. The gross motor of children with CMT may fall behind the fine motor. Therefore, physicians and physiotherapists should pay more attention to the motor development of children with CMT.