Approximately 30 patients per year will require soft tissue procedures for clubfoot. By reducing the number of surgical procedures, the inherent risks and health care costs of surgery are also reduced. Twenty-five patients who have clubfoot, resistant to conservative therapy, and require soft tissue surgery will be included in this study. BJ Sawatzky Toe walking is a normal gait pattern seen in children less than 3 years old. By age three however, most children develop a heel toe pattern.
Toe walking causes problems from both a social as well as a orthopaedic standpoint.
Parents become particularly concerned when their child toe walks. From an orthopaedic standpoint, children who persistently walk on their toes eventually develop contractures in their achilles tedon. This leads to problems with the tendon itself in terms of tedinitis, partial or complete ruptures. At the Shriners Gait Lab, we have developed an objective method for discriminating the minor toe walker from the severe toe walker. This classification scheme, as well as other clinical indicators, will be used as our outcome measures.