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There are several conditions in humans where muscles can go into severe spasm causing a variety of problems such as immobility, distortion of the body or severe pain.
Such conditions could be:
Torticollis:
in torticollis the sternomastoid muscle (the diagonal muscle at the front of the neck that gives the neck the nice shape either side of the Adam's apple) can go into spasm. This can be a defect right from birth or can occur for other reasons during life. If this occurs the muscle goes into spasm and shortens. This pulls the ear down towards the front of the chest meaning the head is pulled to one side and also the face is turned away from the affected side.
Injecting Botulinum toxin into the sternomastoid muscle relieves this allowing the head to be held in a more natural position.
Spastic paralysis
There are certain conditions where muscles or the trunk around the spine or occasionally of the limbs themselves can be constantly contracted paralysing that part of the body and distorting it.
Injection of the muscle in spasm can relax a muscle allowing the limb or the spine to be moved and therefore reducing the deformity caused by the muscle spasm - relieving the spastic paralysis.
Intractable pain
Sometimes when a muscle is in complete spasm, such as some of the muscles in the back, this can hold the body in such a way that a nerve becomes irritated causing severe and intractable pain. This is quite often seen in muscles around the spine. If there is spasm in these muscles, the spine can be bent or twisted by the power of these muscles and the result is nerves can be trapped or crushed and severe pain is the result.
Injection of Botulinum toxin into the muscles in spasm relaxes them allowing the spine to regain its usual non deformed shape and relieving pressure on the nerves. In many cases, this relieves the pain.
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