ABSTRACT
DEFINITION Cervical dystonia (CD) is a simultaneous and sustained contraction of agonist and antagonist muscles of the neck. Based on the head posture and positioning, CD can be described as torticollis (neck rotation), anterocollis (head forward fl exion or pulled forward), retrocollis (head posterior extension or pulled backward), or laterocollis (head tilt or lateral fl exion). Combinations of the above postures are also common. (Fig. 10.1, Fig. 10.2)
BACKGROUND In the 16th century, Rabelais applied the term “torty colly” to elucidate the term wry neck (1). More than 200 years later in 1911, Oppenheim, impressed with the abnormalities in tone seen with these patients, coined the term for dystonia. In this way, he contributed the nomenclature of dystonia musculorum deformans, the precursor appellation of generalized dystonia.
