A novel orthosis for the treatment of clubfoot

We introduce a novel orthosis used with serial manipulations for the treatment of 14 congenital clubfeet (six boys and three girls). The average age at the time of initial treatment was 3.5 months (range, 2-6 months). The average length of treatment was 4.9 months (range, 3-7 months). All patients traveled at least 480 kilometres for their clinic visits. According to the clubfoot classification of Dimeglio et al. 12 clubfeet (85%) were severe and two clubfeet (115%) were moderate. At the end of treatment, all clubfeet were improved by at least one level of grading. Although all clubfeet went on to operative treatment, the initial non-operative treatment did improve the clubfeet. We propose the use of our technique for the non-operative treatment of patients presenting beyond the newborn period with clubfoot, who are restricted in traveling over long distances. (C) 2003 Lippincott Williams Wilkins.