The early results of surgical treatment of congenital clubfoot by a modified soft tissue release

Abstract

Background and objective: Talipes Equinovarus (TEV) or Congenital Clubfoot is the most common congenital anomaly of the foot. The incidence of TEV is 1-2 per 1000 life births, about 30% of these cases is bilateral with a higher incidence in males than in females (2:1). Congenital Clubfoot is a complex deformity which has four components: Heel in equinus, hind foot in varus, mid foot in cavus, forefoot in adduction and supination. The presented study aimed to evaluate the surgical treatment outcome of congenital club foot by a modified soft tissue release (i.e. division of tendons of tibialis posterior and flexor hallucis longus).Methods: This is a prospective study done on the Result of treatment of congenital Clubfoot by soft tissue release. Numbers of patients are thirty three patients, forty eight feet, fifteen patients (45.46%) had bilateral, and eighteen patients (54.55%) had unilateral deformities. Twenty one patients (63.64) were male and twelve patients (36.37) were female, male to female ratio was 1.75:1, their ages range between 4-35 months (mean ages in months = 15.43 months). The patients whom included in this study had no previous treatment because of delay in presentation.Results: All patients were assessed clinically and radiologically. The result of our study was as follow: Excellent result for 28 feet (58.3%), Good result for 16 feet (33.3%), Poor result for 4 feet (8.3%). The over all result can be sub divided to two categories; a) satisfactory which involve both the excellent result and the good result (91.67%) and b) unsatisfactory result which involve only the poor result (8.33%).Conclusion: The study revealed that the use of this surgical method is of good result and lower rate of complication.