congenital muscular torticollis: evaluation of surgical treatment in fifteen consecutive patients

abstract bachground: the main objective of this study was to define the clinical changes of facial deformity in patients older than 5 years with congenital torticollis treated by proximal and distal sternocleidomastoid tenotomy. methods: we retrospectively evaluated fifteen patients who had had an open tenotomy of the sternal and clavicular and mastoid origins of the sternocleidomastoid muscle for muscular torticollis. the average length of follow-up was 4.5 years. the patients were divided into three groups according to their time of operation. group i consisted of patients who were operated on between the age of 5 and 10 years. group ii, patients who were operated on between the age of 10 and 15 years, and group iii patients were operated on when they were 16 years old or older. most patients were operated on between the age of 10 and 15 years. results: according to our method of evaluation two patients in group i had excellent resolution of facial asymmetry and in group ii two patients had excellent and six patients had good results at the final follow-up. and in group iii only one patient had good results and four patients had fair results. conclusion: we conclude that the patient’s age at operation, the duration of the disease and the severity of the facial deformity before operation had the major effect on cosmetic results.