Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about Plagiocephaly and Breakycephaly. If you want to follow along with written notes

on this topic, you can follow along at zero tofinals.com slash plagiocephaly or in the neurology section of the zero to finals pediatrics book.

So let's get straight into it.

Plagiakephly and brachykephly are very common conditions that cause abnormal head shapes

in otherwise normal healthy babies.

Plagio translates as oblique or slanted. Plagia-kephaly refers to a flattening on

one side of the baby's head. Brakeye translates as short. Brakechephele refers to flattening at the

back of the head resulting in a short head from back to front.

These conditions occur where a baby has a tendency to rest their head on a particular point,

resulting in the skull bones and sutures, molding with gravity and pressure to create an abnormal

head shape. This is called positional brachykephaly. This has become more common as parents are advised to

rest babies on their back to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Let's talk about

the presentation. The typical presentation is a baby aged three to six months with an abnormal

head shape. They often have a history of preferring

to sleep on one side of their head. Next, let's talk about management. It's important to exclude

craniocinistosis with a thorough history and properly palpating the sutures. Whether there is

doubt refer the patient for a specialist assessment and imaging,

which usually involves a skull x-ray.

Look for congenital, muscular torticolice or CMT,

which is a shortening of the sternocloid mastoid muscle on one side of the neck.

This may be the reason that the child always muscle on one side of the neck.

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