Comparative results of the conservative treatment in clubfoot by two different protocols

Abstract

The current study aims at presenting the results of the two methods of conservative treatment in clubfoot: the Romanian traditional method and the Ponseti method. The study population included 103 children (148 clubfeet) treated in our department between 1998 and 2005. Between 1998 and 2003, the conservative treatment protocol was based upon the Romanian method. The Ponseti method has been used since 2004. The main criterion for the assessment of the efficiency of the two conservative methods in clubfoot is the number of feet requiring surgical treatment - posteromedial release at 18 months. This criterion is clearly in favor of the Ponseti method: four feet (5%) needed posteromedial release in Ponseti group patients versus 13 feet (18%) in Romanian group patients (P=0.0193). The Ponseti method is safe, efficient in the conservative treatment of clubfoot and decreases the number of surgical interventions needed for the correction of the deformation compared with our traditional method.