This report presents five patients with cervical-area infection and four with spinal cord tumors who presented with torticollis early in the course of their illnesses. three children were found to have osteomyelitis of the cervical spine; two, retropharyngeal abscess; two, intramedullary astrocytoma; one, extradural neuroblastoma; and one, extradural sarcoma. Though torticollis is most frequently a benign condition, its persistence or its association with other objective findings should lead to search for an etiologic basis.

The authors report 56 cases of spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage in Thai infants and children. The causes were: hemorrhagic disorders in 22 cases, arteriovenous malformations and aneurysms in 18, gnathostomiasis in nine, bleeding tumors in four, hypernatremia in one, and undertermined causes in two cases. Coagulation studies and cerebrospinal fluid examination for eosinophils are recommended before further invasive studies in such cases.

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