A 25-year-old Japanese man who spent most of his time looking down at his phone eventually became unable to raise his own head and was diagnosed with ‘dropping head syndrome’.
The rare case report published a couple of years ago in the medical journal JOS Case Reports detailed the disturbing consequences of holding one’s head bent down for hours on end over long periods of time. The patient, a 25-year-old Japanese man who spent most of his time playing on his phone, had developed a large bulge at the back of his neck and could no longer lift his own head using his neck muscles. Before seeking medical help, the man had reportedly experienced serious neck pains and had difficulty swallowing food, which caused him to lose weight rapidly. Eventually, his neck became s weak due to the unnatural position that he became unable to lift his head.
Japanese doctors noted that the patient had been a very active child, but everything changed during his teenage years, when he became the target of “serious bullying” at school, which caused him to drop out of school and spend most of his days locked in his room by himself, playing on his phone. Spending hours on end with his neck bent to look down at his phone caused a huge bulge to form at the back of his neck.
Scans revealed that the vertebrae of his neck had become distorted and dislocated, and scar tissue had formed on his upper spine as a result of it being ‘extremely extended’ for long periods of time.
Initially, doctors tried treating his dropped head with collars, but after the patient complained of numbness in his neck, they decided to opt for another solution. Over a series of surgical procedures, they removed a small portion of the distorted vertebrae and scar tissue before insertig screws and metal rods into the bones of his neck to correct his posture.
Six months after undergoing the neck surgeries, the patient was able to easily lift his head and keep it in a correct position. The same was observed at a subsequent follow-up, a year after the operations. Doctors used this extreme case as a warning against the dangers of excessive smartphone usage, especially among youths.
Dropped head syndrome is a rare medical condition usually associated with neuromuscular conditions, but that can also be caused by deformities of the spine caused by holding the neck bent in unnatural positions for long periods of time.
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