Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Feb 18, 2020; 11(2): 129-136
Published online Feb 18, 2020. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v11.i2.129
Cleft foot: A case report and review of literature
Sergey S Leonchuk, Andrey S Neretin, Anthony J Blanchard
Sergey S Leonchuk, Andrey S Neretin, 6th and 5th Orthopedic Departments, Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopedics 6, Kurgan 640014, Russia
Anthony J Blanchard, Department of Surgery, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45219, United States
Author contributions: Leonchuk SS and Blanchard AJ reviewed the literature; Leonchuk SS, Blanchard AJ and Neretin AS contributed to manuscript drafting; Leonchuk SS revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; Neretin AS was the patient’s surgeon; all authors issued final approval for the version to be submitted.
Informed consent statement: The patient has provided informed consent for the case report to be published. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sergey S Leonchuk, MD, PhD, Head of 6th Orthopedic Department, Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopedics, 6, M. Ulianova Street, Kurgan 640014, Russia. leon4yk@mail.ru
Received: May 17, 2019
Peer-review started: May 20, 2019
First decision: July 31, 2019
Revised: November 8, 2019
Accepted: November 25, 2019
Article in press: November 25, 2019
Published online: February 18, 2020
Processing time: 279 Days and 2 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Cleft foot is a very rare congenital anomaly, which is characterized by central rays deficiency of the foot. It is also known as split foot or ectrodactyly of the foot, and it is very often combined with splitting of the hands. The defect develops due to insufficient activity of the median apical ectodermal ridge, which leads to an increase in cell death or a decrease in cell proliferation. Due to the rarity of the pathology, there are few papers on the surgical treatment of this congenital foot disease, and publications to date concern the treatment of children.

CASE SUMMARY

We present a clinical case of congenital splitting of the feet and hands in a 31-year-old woman and a long-term result of foot treatment using the minimal arrangement of the Ilizarov apparatus. The patient had paternal inheritance of the trait. After the surgical treatment, cosmetic view and functional condition of the foot were improved and persisted two years after intervention. There were no complications in the treatment process.

CONCLUSION

The possibility of dosed control and stable fixation of the foot rays made it possible to create favorable conditions for the healing of the central wound and the closure of the segment splitting without complications. The long-term outcome of the treatment of foot congenital splitting using the proposed Ilizarov apparatus arrangement has shown its effectiveness. Our approach should be considered as an option of treatment in similar cases.

Keywords: Cleft foot; Split foot; Ectrodactyly; Congenital malformation; Ilizarov; Case report

Core tip: We present a clinical case of rare congenital anomaly of feet and hands in a 31-year-old woman and a long-term result of foot treatment using the minimalist construct of the Ilizarov external fixator. The treatment approach made it possible to create favorable conditions for healing of the central wound and closure of segment splitting without complications. The long-term outcome of our treatment of the congenital foot anomaly has shown its effectiveness and can be considered in similar cases.