Recruiting

Osteopathic Plagiocephaly

Sponsor:

Osteopathy's Promise to Children

Code:

NCT05848895

Conditions

Plagiocephaly, Nonsynostotic

Plagiocephaly, Positional

Plagiocephaly

Cranium; Deformity

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 0

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment

Standard of Care Repositioning

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this crossover randomized clinical trial is to assess the effects of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) compared to standard of care repositioning in children diagnosed with positional/deformational plagiocephaly. The main hypothesis is that children who received OMT will show significantly improved anthropometric measures of cranial symmetry over those receiving the current pediatric standard of care of repositioning.

This is a two-arm, randomized cross-over clinical trial. With parental consent, pediatric patients (infants <4 months of age) will be organized into one of two groups:

1. Those who receive OMT with emphasis on osteopathic cranial manipulative medicine (OCMM) to restore cranial symmetry.
2. Those who receive standard care only with repositioning attention from the parents After 8-weeks of being in the first group, each participant will cross-over into the second group (OMT or repositioning) N = 122 subjects diagnosed with deformational plagiocephaly (DP) are to be recruited (to allow for natural attrition and loss to follow up) with the recruitment to continue until 61 patients have been placed in each of the two groups and will cross-over to the respective treatment group (OMT and standard of care repositioning therapy).

Timeline: It is projected that to recruit and carry out the assessments and interventions (8-weeks of each group with 12-months of follow-up longitudinally), it will require two years (24-months) from the beginning of the study to completion.

Conditions

Plagiocephaly, Nonsynostotic

Plagiocephaly, Positional

Plagiocephaly

Cranium; Deformity

Study ID

NCT05848895

Start date

Oct 26, 2023

Status verified date

Mar, 2025

Completion date

Dec, 2025

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec, 2025

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 0

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusions:

  • Diagnosed with positional plagiocephaly
  • Under 4-months of age (between birth - 4 months) at the time of enrollment

Exclusions:

  • Preterm birth (<37 weeks)
  • Genetic syndromes
  • Craniofacial defects/deformities (e.g. cleft lip/palate)
  • Brachycephaly/scaphocephaly
  • Hypotonia
  • Hypertonia
  • Craniosynostosis
  • Head trauma or other neurological illnesses
  • Lost to follow up
  • Patient whose parents (or legal guardians) disagree to attend 8-treatments of OMT and 2 additional measurement sessions
  • Prior helmet therapy, physical therapy, or OMT before the date of enrollment

Study Design

Enrollment

122 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Crossover

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment

Patients will be treated once a week with OMT x 8 weeks

active comparator: Standard of Care Repositioning

Patients will only receive repositioning only x 8 weeks and all parents will receive standardized materials to counsel/instruct on the repositioning

Interventions

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment is a manual treatment therapy applied by licensed physicians that consists of using ones hands to improve the structure and function of the body. In this situation it will involve gentle and passive modalities that are well-tolerated by infants.

Standard of Care Repositioning

Parents will receive standardized handouts/materials instructing on repositioning intended to help improve head shape in infants with plagiocephaly.

Primary outcome measure

  • Cranial Vault Asymmetry Index [ Time Frame: 2 years ]
  • Head circumference [ Time Frame: 2 years ]
  • Weight [ Time Frame: 2 years ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Locations

Osteopathic Center San Diego

Recruiting

San Diego, California, United States, 92123

Contacts

Principal Investigator:

Kimberly Wolf, DO

More Information

Sponsor

Osteopathy's Promise to Children

Last update posted

Aug 3, 2025

Last verified

Mar, 2025

Keywords

  • Positional Plagiocephaly
  • Nonsynostotic Plagiocephaly
  • Repositioning
  • Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment
  • Cranial asymetry

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Osteopathy's Promise to Children on 2025-08-03.