Casting Is Effective for Recurrence Following Ponseti Treatment of Clubfoot
Up to 40% of patients with idiopathic clubfoot who are treated with the Ponseti method experience recurrence of deformity. https://bit.ly/2IuVOm1
Related video from JBJS Essential Surgical Techniques.
What’s New in Pediatric Orthopaedics: Level I and II Studies
Every month, JBJS publishes a Specialty Update—a review of the most pertinent and impactful studies published in the orthopaedic literature during the previous year in 13 subspecialties. Here is a summary of selected findings from Level I and II studies cited in the February 18, 2015 Specialty Update on pediatric orthopaedics:
Spine
–The landmark BrAIST study found that bracing helps prevent adolescent idiopathic scoliosis curves from progressing to a surgical range (≥50°), with a number needed to treat of 3. (See related OrthoBuzz article.)
–A randomized trial comparing the SpineCor brace to rigid bracing for correction of scoliosis found that the rate of curve progression was significantly higher in the SpineCor group.
Neuromuscular Conditions
–A study on the role of steroids in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy found that glucocorticoid therapy decreased the need for spinal surgery to treat scoliosis.
Trauma
–A randomized trial among patients 4 to 12 years of age with a distal radial or distal both-bone fracture found that the use of a double-sugar-tong splint for immediate post-reduction immobilization was at least as effective as the use of a plaster long arm cast.
–A randomized controlled trial of 61 patients from 5 to 12 years old who had a supracondylar humeral fracture found no functional or elbow-motion benefits associated with hospital-based physical therapy after short-term casting.
Foot and Ankle
–A randomized trial of 27 children less than 9 months of age who had resistant metatarsus adductus found that a group receiving orthotic treatment had greater improvement in footprint heel bisector measurements than those receiving serial casting. The orthotic program required more active parental participation but was about half the cost of casting.
–A randomized study of children under 3 months of age with idiopathic clubfoot who were treated with the Ponseti method found that the failure rates and treatment times were significantly higher in a below-the-knee casting group than in an above-the-knee casting group.
Very Low Risk of Cartilage Injury in Kids Taking Levofloxacin
Some pediatricians have been hesitant to prescribe fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as levofloxacin for children because animal studies have found a risk of cartilage injury. A 5-year follow-up safety study of levofloxacin published recently in Pediatrics compared the safety of levofloxacin with a comparator antibiotic in more than 200 children. The number of musculoskeletal adverse events that were “possibly” related to the drugs was very low and essentially the same in both groups. This led the researchers to conclude that “the risks of cartilage injury with levofloxacin appear to be uncommon, are clinically undetectable during 5 years, or are reversible.” In a NEJM Journal Watch commentary on the study, Deborah Lehman, MD said these findings provide at most “a lack of endorsement of the fluoroquinolone-associated musculoskeletal problems seen in preclinical studies.” She adds that the study was limited by the fact that only half of the patients completed the planned 5-year follow up.
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