Infantile postural asymmetry and osteopathic treatment: a randomized therapeutic trial

Dev Med Child Neurol

2006

The aim of this study was to assess the therapeutic efficacy of osteopathic treatment in infants with postural asymmetry. A randomized clinical trial of efficacy with blinded videoscoring was performed. Sixty-one infants with postural asymmetry aged 6 to 12 weeks (mean 9wks) were recruited. Thirty-two infants (18 males, 14 females) with a gestational age of at least 36 weeks were found to be eligible and randomly assigned to the intervention groups, 16 receiving osteopathic treatment and 16 sham therapy. After a treatment period of 4 weeks the outcome was measured using a standardized scale (4-24 points). With sham therapy, five infants improved (at least 3 points), eight infants were unchanged (within 3 points), and three infants deteriorated (not more than -3 points); the mean improvement was 1.2 points (SD 3.5). In the osteopathic group, 13 infants improved and three remained unchanged; the mean improvement was 5.9 points (SD 3.8). The difference was significant (p=0.001). We conclude that osteopathic treatment in the first months of life improves the degree of asymmetry in infants with postural asymmetry.


Philippi, Heike Faldum, Andreas Schleupen, Angela Pabst, Bianka Jung, Tatjana Bergmann, Holger Bieber, Imke Kaemmerer, Christine Dijs, Piet Reitter, Bernd eng Randomized Controlled Trial Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England Dev Med Child Neurol. 2006 Jan;48(1):5-9; discussion 4. doi: 10.1017/S001216220600003X.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16359587