Clubfoot Case Studies

One disease that has always interested me in the skeletal system is clubfoot. I ended up finding a study that compared serial casting and stretching techniques in children with congenital clubfoot. In this study they took thirty two children, which were newborn, and split them into two different groups. One group was treated with the stretching techniques and the second group was treated with the casting technique which was during their first two months of their lives. Each of the different techniques started within the first eight days of their lives. All of the children ended up being assessed to see if they were needing any corrective surgery before starting any initial treatment. In the stretching technique, during the weekdays, a physiotherapist used daily mobilization and parents were also trained for in home stretching exercises which had to be performed twice a day. The stretching involved stimulating the weakened muscles to make spontaneous movements by stretching shortened soft tissue and manipulation of contract joints. All together the child spent ten hours a week at a hospital and ten hours a week using the home stretching exercises. The casting

At this point phase two started. If the child did not need to receive an additional corrective operation then they were set up with an individually made dynamic Knee Ankle Foot Orthosis where they stabilized the rotation of the knee and hip and positioned the foot in an outward position. During the daytime the brace made the foot loose rather than more inhibited at night. This orthosis was used for at least eighteen hours a day. This phase lasted until the child was eight months old. The last phase was used until the child was four years old. During this phase the orthosis was cut down to twelve hours and night and during their midday