Effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment on children with plagiocephaly in the context of current pediatric practice: a retrospective chart review study.

CONTEXT: Deformational plagiocephaly (DP) is on the rise in pediatric patients. The current standard of care recommended for management is repositioning with possible addition of cranial orthoses. However, strong data are lacking to support these recommendations. Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) is another treatment option for DP that is also lacking evidential support. OBJECTIVES: This retrospective chart review study investigated the effects of OMT at restoring a more symmetrical cranial bone configuration in children with DP. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed on medical records of patients with a diagnosis of DP from three private practices over a 4-year period from September 2017 to December 2021. Inclusion criteria were diagnoses of DP by a referring physician and aged 10 months or less at the time of initial evaluation and treatment. Patients were excluded if they had confounding diagnoses such as genetic syndromes or severe torticollis. A total of 26 patients met these criteria, and their records were reviewed. The main outcome reviewed was anthropometric assessment of the cranium, mainly the cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI). RESULTS: Participants demonstrated a mean CVAI - a measure that determines the severity of DP - of 6.809 (±3.335) (Grade 3 severity) at baseline, in contrast to 3.834 (±2.842) (Grade 2 severity) after a series of OMT treatments. CVAI assessment after OMT reveals statistically significant (p≤0.001) decreases in measurements of skull asymmetry and occipital flattening. No adverse events were reported throughout the study period. CONCLUSIONS: The application of OMT has shown potential benefit for reducing cranial deformity in patients with DP.

Thermography Examination of Abdominal Area Skin Temperatures in Individuals With and Without Focal-Onset Epilepsy.

Early osteopathic theory and practice, and the work of the medical intuitive Edgar Cayce suggested that the abdominal areas of individuals with epilepsy would manifest "cold spots." The etiology for this phenomenon was thought to be abdominal adhesions caused by inflammation and viscero-somatic reflexes caused by adhesions or injury to visceral or musculoskeletal system structures. Indeed, until that advent of electroencephalography in the 1930s, medical practice regarding epilepsy focused on abdominal neural and visceral structures. Following two hypotheses were formulated to evaluate any abdominal temperature phenomena: (1) an abdominal quadrant division analysis would find one or more quadrants "colder" in the focal-onset epilepsy group (ICD9-CM 345.4 and 345.5) compared to controls. (2) Total abdominal areas of individuals with focal-onset epilepsy wound be colder than a control group. METHODS: Overall, 50 patients with the diagnosis of focal-onset epilepsy were recruited from the office of the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida and 50 control subjects with no history of epilepsy were recruited through advertising to the public. Under controlled room conditions all subjects had infrared thermographic images made and recorded by Med-Hot Model MH-731 FLIR equipment. RESULTS: There were no significant demographic difference between experimental patients and control subjects, though the control group tended to be younger and more often male; however, these were controlled for in all analyses. In the quadrant analysis, there were significant differences in that more epileptic patients had colder left upper abdominal quadrant temperatures than the control group (66.8% versus 44.9%; P = .030). In the total abdominal analysis, however, there were no significant differences. DISCUSSION: The results support the hypothesis that individuals with focal-onset epilepsy have colder abdominal areas. If substantiated in further research, present study results will require further examination of the mechanisms of action for epilepsy, and suggest the need for re-examination of older formulations of abdominal epilepsy, including the place of abdominal injury, inflammation, and adhesions in epileptic pathology. The concept of somato-visceral and viscero-somatic neurological interactions is one of the possible mechanisms underlying the "cold spot" findings and warrants further consideration.