Baby born with club foot- Causes & Treatments

Club foot,otherwise known as Talipus equinovarus is a foot deformity in which the baby is born with a foot, where heel points downwards and fore foot inward. This starts in the first trimester of pregnancy. One in thousand babies will have club foot deformity, in which 50% will be affected in both feet. This deformity develops due to the abnormal development of foot bones, muscles, ankle joints and ligaments.

Causes of a baby born with club foot

Baby born with Club feet can be a result of genetic as well as environmental factors. If one parent has club foot there is a 3-4 % chance of a baby being born with club foot. If both parents have club foot the chance increases to 15%. Genetic causes of baby born with club foot can be bone infection or nerve and vascular lesions and intrauterine infection.Environmental causes can be infection, drugs or cigarette smoking.

Treatment for babies born with club foot

Treatment of babies born with club feet varies upon the severity of the condition. It can be gentle manipulation or surgery.Gentle manipulation involves gentle holding and stretching of foot into a more natural position and use of splints, strapping, plaster casts or special boots. Surgery is done in severe cases where bones, joints, muscles or ligaments are deformed. Surgery is done to correct soft tissues,bone deformities or to correct tendons. In soft tissue surgery the surgeon relaxes the tight soft tissues in the joints. Bone corrections involve shortening or lengthening of bones and bone fusion to fix a joint. Finally tendon correction is the movement of tendons to the correct position to rectify the deformity