What are the types of spastic squint? How can it be treated?

  Spastic squint is a condition in which the neck muscles contract involuntarily in a paroxysmal manner, causing the head and neck to be in various tilted or rotated positions. It is aggravated by activity or work stress, and is relieved or disappears during sleep. Symptoms often appear suddenly as a “pulling or dragging of the neck” or as an involuntary rotation or sharp turn of the head. Atypical symptoms can lead to misdiagnosis as “arthritis, cervical radiculopathy, psychiatric disorders, Parkinson’s or TMJ syndrome.  Spastic squint can be divided into the following types: 1. Horizontal rotation type. It is a spastic squint in which the patient’s head is turned to one side with spasm of the sternocleidomastoid muscle on one side and the cephalic grip muscle on the other side.  2. Lateral flexion type. Spasm of the same side of the cervical muscles, such as the sternocleidomastoid muscle, cephalicus muscle, scapularis muscle, cervical muscle, anterior, middle and posterior oblique muscles, when some of these muscles spasm, the patient’s head and neck to the side of the flexion of the spastic squint.  3.Rotational posterior tilt type. When one side of the head pinch muscle, trapezius muscle and scapular muscle spasm, the patient’s head and neck both turn to the affected side and tilt backwards.  4.rotation forward type. When the spasm of sternocleidomastoid muscle and broad cervical muscle is mainly on one side, the patient’s head rotates to the affected side and tilts forward.  5.Over-extension type. The spasmodic squinting neck in which the patient’s head and neck are overextended backward and the eyes are looking at the sky is caused by spasm of the trapezius, cephalic muscle and semispinal muscle on both sides at the same time or spasm of one or two pairs of muscles.  6.Overflexion type. When both sternocleidomastoid muscles, cervical latissimus muscle and oblique angle muscle (anterior, middle and posterior) spasm at the same time or one or two pairs of them, the patient’s head and neck are flexed forward.  Regarding the treatment of spastic squint, one can try to treat it with brain pacemaker surgery (deep brain electrical stimulation, DBS). The brain pacemaker can inhibit the abnormal impulses of nerves in the patient’s brain, so that the symptoms can be well relieved and the patient’s ability to live and work can be restored. The procedure is minimally invasive and relatively safe, and the surgeon can adjust the parameters according to the patient’s symptoms in time after the operation so that the patient can get better results.