Introduction: The diagnosis of hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies during childhood is uncommon, since the disorder is still asymptomatic and the clinical features are nonspecific.
Clinical case: We present a case of hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies in a seven and a half year old girl with deteriorating clinical findings of 'pies cavos', scoliosis, difficulty in walking and torticollis, but without episodes of paralysis. On the electroneurographic (ENG) study numerous anomalies of sensory and motor nerve conduction were seen, especially at sites of nerve trapping, both in the patient and in her mother; genetic study showed deletions of chromosome 17p11.2 in both.
Conclusions: Hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsiesin childhood may follow a course which does not show typical pressure palsies. Therefore the ENG study is very important for detection of the disorder. Torticollis, as well as pies cavos and scoliosis, is frequently seen in neuropaediatric clinics, so the possibility, as in the case reported, that this is part of the clinical spectrum of hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies should be considered. With diagnostic confirmation on genetic studies, nerve biopsy is not necessary.