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[Dropped head syndrome: report of two cases]
O Deneufgermain1, E Solau-Gervais, A Bera-Louville
1Service de médecine interne, hôpital Claude-Huriez, centre hospitalier et universitaire de Lille, 59037 Lille cedex, France.
Purpose:
The dropped head syndrome is characterized by an abnormal bending of the head to the body, mainly affecting old people. It corresponds to an alteration of the cervical extensor muscles, revealing in some cases a neuromuscular disease. In some cases, the etiology of this syndrome remains unknown.
Exegesis:
We report here two cases with dropped head syndrome. The first clinical case concerned a 78-year old man, presenting a dropped head syndrome revealing a myasthenia. The syndrome disappeared with specific therapy. The second clinical case was a dropped head syndrome developed in the context of severe depressive syndrome in a 71-year old woman. The etiological screening did not reveal any underlying disease. Counteracting the syndrome was successfully obtained with early physiotherapy.
Conclusion:
The dropped head syndrome can reveal a general disease such as myasthenia or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Therefore, investigation needs first to eliminate underlying diseases. If no etiology is found, the dropped head syndrome is considered of an unknown neuromuscular origin or a psychosomatic disease. In this latter case, physiotherapy may be beneficial.
