Effectiveness of the ponseti technique in treating children with different types of clubfoot: A cross-sectional study at Lady Reading Hospital.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Ponseti technique in relation to different types of clubfoot on the basis of Pirani scoring among patients at lady reading hospital (LRH) Peshawar. Study Design: Retrospective Cross Sectional study. Setting: Department of Clubfoot, Lady Reading Hospital Medical Teaching Institute, Peshawar. Period: Study conducted till November 2024; retrospective Data was obtained from December 2020 to December 2022. Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted on children with clubfoot deformity visiting Clubfoot department of Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar. On the basis of selection criteria, data of total 408 patients (mean age = 6.29 ± 6.04 months), comprising 271 males and 137 females were included in the study. Data related to study population was collected. Pirani score was used as an assessment tool to investigate the effectiveness of Ponseti method in treating clubfoot deformity. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 26. Results: Total 614 clubfoot were treated in this study. In this sample, the ratio of males to females was approximately 2:1, indicating that males were affected about twice as common as female. By the end of treatment, 76.34% (n = 468) of cases achieved maximum correction with a Pirani score of ≤ 1, including 48.77% who reached a score of 0.00. A marked shift was also observed in both the median and mode of Pirani scores from pre- to post-treatment, reflecting a significant improvement in clinical outcomes. The results of this study showed the Ponseti method is significant effective in treating clubfoot (p-value =0.001 Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test). Conclusion: This study concludes that the Ponseti method is highly effective in the treatment of various types of clubfoot, including idiopathic, syndromic, and neurogenic forms. The significant improvement observed in Pirani scores from pre- to post-treatment demonstrates the method's ability to achieve substantial correction of the deformity.