ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Orthopedics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1594911
This article is part of the Research TopicTherapeutic Strategies: Rehabilitation, Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Musculoskeletal DiseasesView all articles
Efficacy and Safety Analysis of Massage and Medium-Frequency Electrotherapy in the Treatment of Congenital Muscular Torticollis in Infants
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Pediatric Orthopedics, Fujian Children's Hospital,College of Clinical Medicine for Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pediatrics, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China
- 2Aofeng Community Health Service Center, Taijiang District, Fuzhou, China
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Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of massage combined with medium-frequency electrotherapy (M&MFE) in the treatment of congenital muscular torticollis (CMT) in infants. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 48 CMT patients who underwent M&MFE treatment at the Fujian Children's Hospital and Traditional Chinese Medicine Department of Ao-feng Community Health Service Center in Tai-jiang District, Fuzhou City, from May 2021 to December 2023. All patients had complete follow-up data, received continuous treatment for 6 months, and were followed up for at least 1 year. The following parameters were evaluated: cervical range of motion (ROM) and muscle function scale to assess efficacy, and complications during treatment were recorded. Results: A total of 48 patients were included, comprising 26 females and 22 males. The age at initial treatment ranged from 21 to 135 days, with a mean of (41.2±25.4) days. There were 21 cases with left-side involvement and 27 cases with right-side involvement. All patients were followed up for 13 to 20 months, with a mean follow-up duration of (14.5±2.6) months. By the end of follow-up, 5 patients (10.4%) underwent surgical release. The overall efficacy rate was 89.6%, and significant improvements were observed in cervical ROM and muscle function scores after treatment (P<0.05). No complications related to the skin, blood vessels, nerves, or muscles occurred during the treatment period. Conclusion: The combination of manual massage and local medium-frequency electrotherapy is a safe and effective non-surgical treatment option for treating infants with congenital muscular torticollis. It significantly improves the neck range of motion and function, and has high clinical promotion value.
Keywords: infants, Congenital muscular torticollis, massage therapy, Medium frequency electrotherapy, treatment efficacy, Safety
Received: 17 Mar 2025; Accepted: 16 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lin, Sun and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiangxuan Wang, xiangxuanw2022@163.com
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