[Positional plagiocephaly and neurodevelopment: a narrative review]

Positional plagiocephaly is a common pediatric pathology that has been considered as a cosmetic condition, but recently its association with neurodevelopmental delay has been explored.

To perform a narrative review updating the findings of a 2017 systematic review on plagiocephaly and neurodevelopment.

Articles in the MEDLINE, PubMed, Google Scholar, and DeepDyve databases were reviewed, data were extracted from the most relevant studies evaluating their methodological quality. The search terms used were: "plagiocephaly", "positional plagiocephaly", "brachycephaly", "motor skills", "development", "developmental delay", "neurodevelopment", "language acquisition", "psychomotor performance", and "cognition".

The search found 198 articles, of which 14 met the inclusion criteria. A child population aged 4 to 11 months to 8 years was observed. The study highlighted limitations including potential selection bias, use of the same population in several studies, and lack of diagnostic consistency. The results showed a positive association between plagiocephaly and neurodevelopmental delay. The studies of higher methodological quality identified delays in different developmental stages (7, 18, and 36 months, and school-age) and dimensions (motor skills, cognition, behavior, and language).

There is an association between plagiocephaly and neurodevelopmental delay. Primary care professionals should monitor infants with this condition in order to initiate proactive interventions.