31 January 2025
Sky News published an article this month quoting scientists at Southmead Hospital who claimed there was a lack of research into flat head syndrome and whether helmet therapy works.
Interestingly, Southmead Hospital is the only NHS trust in the UK to offer cranial remoulding therapy for babies with positional plagiocephaly or brachycephaly. Presumably, they must believe helmet therapy works themselves, or they would not be offering the treatment.
When they say there is no research, we assume that they mean there is no UK research as there is plenty of published research in the USA, Germany and the Netherlands. We refer to some on the plagiocephaly clinical research page on our website.
Having treated positional plagiocephaly (flat head syndrome) for 20 years, LOC is in a good position to provide an objective overview of the evidence. For moderate or severe cases of the condition, helmet therapy is a good treatment option to take.
At the London Orthotic Consultancy, we have successfully treated thousands of babies with varying degrees of the condition. The NHS stance is primarily that the condition is a cosmetic one and that as a baby grows the condition will naturally resolve.
If parents remain concerned, some NHS trusts are now providing guidance on tummy time and repositioning techniques to help natural resolution.
This is the nub: Will moderate or severe cases of positional plagiocephaly resolve naturally without intervention?
We can refer to the existing research and there is one particular piece of research that answers this specific question.
This is a retrospective study of the effectiveness of treatment for 4,378 babies between 2004 and 2011 at the Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois.
It compares conservative treatment (repositioning with or without physiotherapy) with helmet therapy for plagiocephaly and brachycephaly.
The research paper was published in March 2015 in the Journal of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery.
Complete correction was achieved in 77.1% of conservative treatment patients.
For babies who received helmet therapy as first-line therapy, the complete correction was achieved in 94.4% of cases.
This study confirms our clinician’s view that helmet therapy is the correct treatment for babies with moderate to severe plagiocephaly or brachycephaly, but repositioning does work for young babies with mild cranial deformation. This aligns with our clinical experience of over 20 years of treating babies successfully with helmet therapy.
If you would like to discuss your treatment queries with one of our specialist plagiocephaly clinicians, please book an appointment today.
