Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Nov 18, 2022; 13(11): 986-992
Published online Nov 18, 2022. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i11.986
Can immediate postoperative radiographs predict outcomes in pediatric clubfoot?
Duangjai Leeprakobboon
Duangjai Leeprakobboon, Department of Orthopedic, Khon Kaen Hospital, Muang 40000, Khon Kaen, Thailand
Author contributions: Leeprakobboon D solely contributed to this paper.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, No. KEF64035.
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent regarding personal and medical data collection prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All author reports no conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, with regard to the materials or methods used or the findings described in this study.
Data sharing statement: The original anonymous dataset is available on request from the corresponding author at dleeprakobboon@gmail.com.
STROBE statement: The guidelines of the STROBE Statement have been adopted.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Duangjai Leeprakobboon, MD, Surgeon, Department of Orthopedic, Khon Kaen Hospital, Sri-chan Road, Muang 40000, Khon Kaen, Thailand. dleeprakobboon@gmail.com
Received: August 29, 2022
Peer-review started: August 29, 2022
First decision: October 24, 2022
Revised: October 29, 2022
Accepted: November 2, 2022
Article in press: November 2, 2022
Published online: November 18, 2022
Processing time: 79 Days and 6.2 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Idiopathic clubfoot is an abnormal bone alignment and there are currently failure cases resulting from the currently acceptable treatment protocol. Postoperative radiographs are expected to predict outcomes beginning at the prewalking age.

Research motivation

To predict the outcome and early prevention in cases that may fail with Ponseti’s method, considering the lack of radiographic postoperative studies and almost none of the disadvantages of radiation taken once, we decided to use the simple radiographic method for outcome prediction.

Research objectives

To assess the correlation between immediately postoperative radiographic parameters and functional outcomes.

Research methods

Patients with idiopathic clubfoot were assessed for radiographic parameters immediately postoperatively, and functional scores were assessed at follow-up.

Research results

The tibiocalcaneal and talocalcaneal angles showed significant differences between each functional outcome, and the tibiocalcaneal angle had a strong effect, with a smaller angle seeming better.

Research conclusions

The tibiocalcaneal angle, derived from lateral radiographs immediately after Achilles tenotomy and cast, can predict functional outcome at 1 year postoperatively.

Research perspectives

A larger population and long-term follow-up of 5 to 10 years would provide a better correlation of the radiographic parameters and functional outcomes.