Understanding Surgical and Nonsurgical Clubfoot Treatment

As a set of foot abnormalities, club foot shorten the tissues connecting muscles to the bones or tendons. Hence, one or both feet of the child appear rotated inwards and downwards. At the same time, the calf muscles in the affected leg remain underdeveloped, while making it difficult for infants to walk. The parents cannot prevent clubfoot as congenital foot abnormalities.

But they can make the child walk normally by consulting a skilled orthopaedic. The orthopaedic decides the clubfoot treatment by observing the foot’s shape and positioning. They may even recommend X-Ray to assess the severity of clubfoot. They can even treat clubfoot both surgically and non-surgically. But the seasoned orthopaedic always start treating clubfoot non-surgically.

Nonsurgical Clubfoot Treatment

Normally, the foot and joints of infants are much more flexible than similar body parts of children. Hence, the orthopaedic start clubfoot treatment immediately to make the child’s foot normal and enable him to walk normally. They even start nonsurgical treatment of clubfoot in the first week after birth. Nonsurgical clubfoot treatment normally includes stretching and casting.

While starting the treatment, the doctor places the child’s affected foot in a cast to rectify its position. The parents need to recast and reposition the child’s foot once or twice a week for several months. Once the child’s foot is realigned, they need to make his perform stretch exercise. They may even need to put the child in specially designed shoes and braces.

Surgical Clubfoot Treatment

The experienced orthopaedic treat clubfoot surgically if the nonsurgical treatment fails. Sometimes the doctors even perform surgery to treat clubfoot if the symptoms are severe. The surgery realigns the affected foot by lengthening tendon. The foot further needs to be placed in a cast for one to two months. Subsequently, the child has to wear braces to prevent clubfoot from returning and walk normally.

On the whole, clubfoot can be treated both surgically and non-surgically. The experienced orthopaedics always treat clubfoot non-surgically through stretching and casting. But they treat clubfoot surgically only if the non-surgical treatment fails. Hence, it is always important for parents to get clubfoot diagnosed and treated as early as possible to make the child walk normally.