A Four-year Review of Delayed Initial Treatment of Patients with Congenital Talipes equinovarus in a General Hospital

Congenital Talipes Equinovarus (CTEV), or club foot, is a common congenital orthopaedic abnormality of the foot, which is easily diagnosed but difficult to treat perfectly. Controversy in terms of its etiology, classification and management continues to exist. Delayed initial treatment in patients with clubfoot has a strong correlation with a poor outcome. The purpose of this study was to review the factors that influence the outcome in patients who get delayed initial treatment at Hasan Sadikin General Hospital so that poor outcome can be prevented. We reviewed the medical records of 15 patients (23 feet) during the period from January 2009 to December 2013 and analysed various factors including gender, age at time of first treatment, type of disorder, the level of success of non-surgical therapy, parent education level, family income and accessibility to health care centre. CTEV was more common in girls in our patients who were in the 6–12 months age group. The most common type of CTEV was the flexible type. Treatment with serial casting produced good results in most patients. The majority of parents' educational level was junior high school and had 2–5 million/month income. The accessibility of patients to health care centre was difficult.