Idiopathic congenital talipes equinovarus; not always an isolated anomaly. A review of long-term outcomes

Abstract

Objective: To describe the long-term outcomes of children at school age who were thought to have isolated idiopathic congenital talipes equino varus (ICTEV) at birth.

Method: A retrospective review of all children attending a regional talipes clinic who had achieved school age.

Results: One hundred sixty-three children were followed up. ICTEV was more common in Maori and other Polynesian children and in males. Additional abnormalities were apparent in 30.1% overall, but higher in New Zealand Europeans (43%) than Maori (21%) or other Polynesians (22%). Of the abnormalities, 41% were associated with the central nervous system or with neurodevelopmental delay. Conventional G-band karyotyping, where performed, was not informative.

Conclusions: The rate of additional abnormalities was higher than previous reports. This has implications for prenatal counseling and postnatal follow-up as a prenatal diagnosis of ICTEV may subsequently be found to have longer term implications in addition to orthopedic treatments of the clubfeet.

Keywords:

• Club feet outcomes
• Maori genetic studies
• Pirani score
• Polynesian epidemiology of club foot
• Ponseti method
• prenatal diagnosis club foot

Acknowledgments

Authors thank Ms. Andrea Hickman and Dr. Lynn Sadler for assistance with initial data extraction.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Ethical Approval: Ethical approval was obtained from the New Zealand Northern Regional Ethics Committee, number 2008/AEC/015.