Efficacy of Pediatric Integrative Manual Therapy In Cervical Movement Limitation In Infants With Positional Plagiocephaly: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Positional plagiocephaly (PP) is a cranial deformation frequent amongst children and consisting in a flattened and asymmetrical head shape. PP is associated with excessive time in supine and with congenital muscular torticollis (CMT). Few studies have evaluated the efficiency of a manual therapy approach in PP. The purpose of this parallel randomized controlled trial is to compare the effectiveness of adding a manual therapy approach to a caregiver education program focusing on active rotation range of motion (AROM) and neuromotor development in a PP pediatric sample. Methods: 34 children with PP and less than 28 week old were randomly distributed into two groups. AROM and neuromotor development with Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) were measured. The evaluation was performed by an examiner, blinded to the randomization of the subjects. A pediatric integrative manual therapy (PIMT) group received 10-sessions involving manual therapy and a caregiver education program. The control group received the caregiver education program exclusively. To compare intervention effectiveness across the groups, improvement indexes of AROM and AIMS were calculated using the difference of the final measurement values minus the baseline measurement values. If the distribution was normal, the improvement indexes were compared using the Student t-test for independent samples; if not, the Mann-Whitney U test was used. The effect size of the interventions was calculated using Cohen's d. Results: All randomized subject were analysed. After the intervention, the PIMT group showed a significantly higher increase in rotation (29.68 ± 18.41º) than the control group (6.13 ± 17.69º) (p< 0.05). Both groups improved the neuromotor development but no statistical significant differences were found. No harm was reported during the study.Conclusion: The PIMT intervention program was more effective in increasing AROM than using only a caregiver education program.