Can Below-Knee Casts be Effective for Clubfoot Management in Walking-Age Children? A Prospective Cohort Study.

Purpose: Above-knee casts pose a major challenge in the day-to-day activities among walking age clubfoot patients due to complete restriction of knee movement. This current study investigates the effectiveness of below-knee casts compared to above-knee casts for managing walking age clubfoot deformity.

Methods: After approval from the institutional ethical committee, we enrolled walking age clubfoot patients for deformity correction through corrective manipulation and casting through below-knee casts over 2 years. The corrective manipulation was performed using the Ponseti technique. The patients were followed for a minimum of 2 years period. To compare the effectiveness of below-knee casts over above-knee casts, we enrolled equal numbers of walking age clubfeet matched for age and gender. We compared the two groups in terms of initial and post-correction Dimeglio scores, individual deformities corrections (maximum ankle dorsiflexion, heel varus correction, foot abduction), failure rates, relapses, and complication rates.

Results: 56 patients with 80 clubfeet with a mean follow-up of 39.98 months were considered for the final analysis. There were 29 patients in the below-knee cast group and 27 in the above-knee cast group, with 40 clubfeet each. The patients in the above-knee casting group had significantly better post-correction Dimeglio scores and individual deformity components corrections than the below-knee cast group. There were nil failures in the above-knee casting group and 7.5% in the below-knee cast group. The relapse rate was 15% in both groups, with none requiring any extensive soft tissue procedure. We did not encounter any major complications during the treatment and follow-up.

Conclusion: The deformity correction and maintenance are suboptimal with the below-knee casts. Therefore, above-knee casts should be the preferred management modality for correction of walking age clubfoot deformities.