Using Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) to Treat Torticollis

Source: Pin-Chieh Chiang

A few weeks ago, a special visitor came to my school: a 5-month-old infant with torticollis. Torticollis is a condition where the muscles of the neck are contracted, producing slanting and twisting of the head to one side. The baby smiled and sat on his mommy's lap while 40-plus medical students sat in a half circle around him. Even when my professor, Dr. Cislo, approached him, he didn't shy away.


Dr. Cislo did not touch the baby right away. Instead, she worked on making eye contact. She let the baby play with her scarf and fingers, while she slowly made physical contact starting at the extremities. All the while, she was getting the history and physical from the parents and giving us students a demonstration of the proper way to approach a baby.


For those of you who aren't familiar with OMT (osteopathic manipulative treatment), it involves using the hands to diagnose, treat, and prevent illness or injury. Dr. Cislo proceeded to treat the baby with OMT. "Babies," she said -- "you have to treat them wherever they are, can't just position them and expect them to stay still." She showed this by working around the baby and mother, changing positions and adapting to the baby as he was breastfeeding, getting burped, or just fussing around.




The baby cried during the treatments, and it was hard not to cringe for him. But Dr. Cislo is a professional and she would show the mom how little force she was using through each technique so as not to worry her. Just as Dr. Cislo was explaining, "You know the treatment works when the baby calms down, because his pain is released," the baby actually stopped crying. From that point on, he was much more compliant.




After the treatment, my classmates and I watched for the baby's reaction. He was being his smiling, bouncing self. Like any other infant, he was happily playing with his toes. It didn't seem remarkable… until the mother said, "That's the first time he's played with his feet." A few days later, the mother contacted Dr. Cislo to remark on how her baby has turned over for the first time and how he can tolerate his physical therapy sessions much longer now. The mother also mentioned the indirect effects such as the baby being more playful, staying awake longer, eating better, and using his left arm more.




That day, it was very inspiring to see my professor in her physician mode. I know that a lot of my professors are more than just the lecturer I normally get to interact with. It makes me look forward to rotations, to when I will get more chances like these to learn first-hand from my professors. It was also very awesome to be able to see OMT work outside of the classroom. Often in the laboratory setting, I rarely succeed in treating my partners with OMT. This is because most of the time my partners don't have any serious problems and also because I am still learning how to execute the techniques properly. Still, I definitely love all the concepts of OMT; otherwise I wouldn't be at an osteopathic school.




This isn't intended to be a comprehensive clinical study about the effects of OMT. But on that day, this mother and her beaming baby had nothing but thanks for Dr. Cislo's wonderful work.