Spastic torticollis

1. Big picture

Spastic torticollis, more correctly called cervical dystonia or spasmodic torticollis, is a focal dystonia of the neck muscles.

It causes involuntary, sustained or intermittent contraction of cervical muscles, producing abnormal head posture, twisting of the neck, pain, and sometimes tremulous head movement.

The key exam sentence:

Spastic torticollis is an adult-onset focal dystonia of the neck, treated most effectively with local botulinum toxin injections into the overactive muscles.

It belongs to the group of hyperkinetic extrapyramidal movement disorders.