ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Surg.
Sec. Pediatric Orthopedics
Totally transaxillary endoscopic surgical release for congenital muscular torticollis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 3Quanzhou First Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China
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Purpose This study aims to present our experience with totally transaxillary endoscopic surgical release (TTESR) for the treatment of patients diagnosed with congenital muscular torticollis (CMT), as well as to compare the efficacy of this minimally invasive approach with that of conventional open surgical release (OSR). Materials and methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients diagnosed with CMT who underwent either TTESR or OSR between January 2014 and December 2020. Herein, we provide a detailed description of the TTESR procedure. A total of 24 children were enrolled, with 6 patients undergoing TTESR and the remaining 18 undergoing OSR. The latter group was matched based on age and lesion location. Clinical data, including length of hospital stay, operative duration, intraoperative blood loss, and range of cervical rotation, were meticulously recorded. Comparative analysis was performed between the TTESR and OSR groups. Results In our series, all 24 patients exhibited a marked improvement in cervical range of motion. No statistically significant differences were observed between the TTESR and OSR groups with respect to gender distribution, length of hospital stay, operative duration, or intraoperative blood loss. However, a significant difference was noted in the combined scores of scar evaluation and subjective assessments. No severe postoperative complications were reported. Additionally, with the accumulation of surgical experience, the average operative time for TTESR decreased to 40–50 minutes. Conclusion This study demonstrates that TTESR serves an effective alternative to conventional OSR for correcting CMT, with the additional advantage of eliminating the aesthetically undesirable neck scar.
Keywords: Congenital muscular torticollis, Endoscopic Surgery, Open surgery, Minimally invasive approach, Cosmetic result
Received: 07 Oct 2024; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Zhong, Qigen, Gao, Juntao, Jiang, Chen and Gao. 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: Pengfei Gao, gaopf3@mail.sysu.edu.cn
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