Casting Is Effective for Recurrence Following Ponseti Treatment of Clubfoot

BACKGROUND: Up to 40% of patients with idiopathic clubfoot who are treated with the Ponseti method experience recurrence of deformity. Many of these patients receive surgery (e.g., anterior tibial tendon transfer). An alternative approach for recurrent clubfoot is repeat Ponseti casting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome of repeat Ponseti casting in the treatment of recurrent clubfoot. METHODS: Patients with recurrent idiopathic clubfoot who were treated at our hospital, between 2004 and 2012, with repeat serial casting and bracing (the recurrent group) were eligible for inclusion in the study. The recurrent group and a control group of randomly selected patients seen during the same period who had not had recurrence were compared with respect to demographic data, age at the time of treatment, number of casts, subsequent surgical intervention(s), and the Disease-Specific Instrument (DSI) clubfoot scale. Patients were deemed to have a successful outcome if they had a well-corrected foot (defined as dorsiflexion of ≥10°, hindfoot in valgus, and a straight lateral border) at the time of follow-up. RESULTS: Of a total of 71 eligible patients with clubfeet, 35 patients participated. At the time of follow-up, success rates were 74% for the recurrent group and 83% for the control group. Dorsiflexion past neutral was significantly higher in the control group than the patient group (20° versus 12°, respectively; p < 0.001). Ninety-five percent of the control subjects had a straight lateral border in comparison with 78% in the recurrent group (p = 0.004). Likewise, 97% of controls had the hindfoot in valgus in comparison with 80% of the recurrent group (p = 0.02). There was a significant difference in the ability to squat (76% in the control group and 43% in the recurrent group; p = 0.03). There was no difference between groups in the total outcome of the DSI. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrence was seen in 19% (71) of 382 children who were eligible for our study who were typically discharged after the age of 5 years from our clinic, indicating the importance of continued follow-up until after that age. Treatment with casting was successful in many patients and may be a reasonable choice for recurrent idiopathic clubfeet. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.