Can clubfoot scoring systems predict the number of casts and future recurrences in patients undergoing Ponseti method?

Background Congenital clubfoot is one of the common congenital orthopaedic deformities. Pirani and Dimeglio scoring systems are two classification systems for measuring the severity of the clubfoot. However, the relation between the initial amount of each of these scores and the treatment parameters is controversial. Methods Patients with severe and very severe idiopathic clubfoot undergoing Ponseti treatment were entered. Their initial Pirani and Dimeglio scores, the number of castings as a short-term treatment parameter, and the recurrences as a long-term parameter until the age of three were prospectively documented. Results One hundred patients (143 feet) with mean age of 9.51 +/- 2.3 days including 68 males and 32 females and the mean initial Pirani score of 5.5 +/- 0.5 and the mean initial Dimeglio score of 17.1 +/- 1.6 were studied. The incidence of relapse was 8.4 %( n = 12). The mean initial Pirani score (P < 0.001) and the mean initial Dimeglio score (P < 0.003) of the feet with recurrence were significantly more than the non-recurrence feet. The mean number of casts in the recurrence group (7 +/- 0.9) was significantly more than the feet without recurrences (6.01 +/- 1.04) (P = 0.002). The ROC curve suggested the Pirani score of 5.75 and the Dimeglio score of 17.5 as the cut-off points of these scores for recurrence prediction. Conclusion In our study, Pirani and Dimeglio scores are markedly related with more number of casts and recurrence in patients with severe and very severe clubfoot. Also, we have introduced new cut-off points for both classification systems for prediction of recurrence. To the best of our knowledge, this finding has not been introduced into the English literature.