The dropped head syndrome: rehabilitation of cervical focal myositis

Abstract

PURPOSE/METHOD: This paper reports on a process of intensive physiotherapy used to treat severe dysfunction caused by dropped head syndrome, a rare clinicopathological entity, in which the sufferer is not able to hold the head upright, so that it falls forward and the chin lies permanently on the chest. This, in turn, causes severe impairment of the activities of daily life and of social intercourse. RESULTS/OUTCOMES: The medical treatment of an 80 year-old woman with this syndrome was supplemented with a 6-month course (four times a week) of manual physiotherapy, and the combined success of the two approaches enabled her to resume management of her home and return to her social life.