Torticollis following radiation therapy

Abstract

A patient with adenocarcinoma in the apical portion of the lung producing a Pancoast's syndrome developed torticollis a few months after receiving a course of radiation therapy (5,040 rad) to his upper chest and neck. We describe this case, in which local radiation fibrosis of the neck muscles and perhaps segmental demyelination of the 11th cranial nerve resulted in peripheral nervous system lesion causing torticollis.