Congenital Talipes equinovarus is a rather common congenital foot deformity in newborn. Finding the most effective treatment is a key to the best possible quality of life for children born with Talipes equinovarus. Both brace compliance and type of brace influence the final outcome in the treatment of Talipes equinovarus and the difference in outcome between differently manufactured foot abduction needs fully documented evaluation.
A clinical study included 60 children treated Talipes equinovarus with Ponseti technique and using a locally fabricated foot abduction brace to maintain the correction. Final evaluation was held at least after ten months of follow up.
At the end of follow up morphological evaluation score was found significantly correlated with age, and significantly associated with neurological deficit and presence of other deformity, whereas radiological evaluation score was significantly correlated with age only. All those three parameters significantly correlated to outcome are largely documented in the literature as factors associated with poor result in the treatment of Talipes equinovarus.
From this study, the locally fabricated foot abduction brace is equally effective as classic brace in terms of maintaining correction in Talipes Equinovarus.