Ponseti Treatment Works in Walking-Age Kids with Residual Clubfoot Deformity

Despite the remarkable success of modern treatments for congenital clubfoot, including the Ponseti method, some kids still end up with a rigid residual deformity after walking age. In the October 19. 2016 edition of JBJS, Dragoni et al. investigated the Ponseti treatment in 44 patients (68 feet; mean age of 4.8 years) who had been previously treated with various surgical and conservative protocols but whose outcomes were fair or poor, according to International Clubfoot Study Group scores.

The authors performed Ponseti manipulation and cast application with the patients under conscious sedation. Depending on the clinical situation, some patients also received percutaneous heel-cord surgery or percutaneous fasciotomy, and all those over 3 years old (88% of the feet) received tibialis anterior tendon transfer (TATT).

At a mean follow-up of just under 5 years, 84% of the feet had achieved excellent or good results. No feet showed a lack of plantar flexion or were not plantigrade. Despite the mobility problems that a series of long leg Ponseti casts posed for kids of walking age, the authors reported that “families enthusiastically agreed to continue the Ponseti treatment as soon as they looked at the improved shape of their child’s foot after removal of the first plaster cast.”