Going off two studies - the Dobbs study, and the Ponsetti study, both being about the only reasonably well done, as well as very honest studies available(willing to challenge their own biases,) it is striking to see the different conclusions. Ponsetti, following up on patients treated with his methodology, show positive outcomes with greater frequency, whereas the Dobbs study, following primarily patients treated at his own hospital setting, found negative outcomes more prevalent.
As the Ponsetti method is the far more conservative approach, and with clearly better outcomes, why is it this method has not been fully embraced by the pediatric orthopedic community? It is my understanding there is another study underway re: Ponsetti outcomes, and I suspect it will further lend weight to that method.
But for the rest of us, this is entirely academic - Ponsetti can do us little good, except to let us know there will be fewer adults facing what we currently do, which of course is very promising. But despite all this evidence, there is still no evidence the orthopedic community considers post-club feet to be a specific issue - they are glad to fuse, or do additional soft-tissue surgeries in response to symptoms, but there is no study, no one trying to look at these issues in a comprehensive manner, with acknowledgment they are looking at a very specific syndrome.
I have sent emails to several orthopedic surgeons, including Dobbs, addressing these questions, with no response to date. I wonder why that is?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
1 comment:
Welcome to The Truth About Talipes! Your comments are welcome, and strongly encouraged. We with post-club feet are the best sources of information about the issues we face. Join in! (If your comment fails to appear, make a second attempt - Blogger is known to have "issues" with Comment upload from time to time.) And right now, it seems it does not want to display comments on the main page, but it will show them for individual posts, so don't give up yet!!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
To face the issue that post-clubbed feet would be to face the issue that all of their methods don't 'cure' clubbed feet as they would like to present. However, all of these methods are, as far as I can tell, better than a life without any sort of correction. This is the first I have had mention of post-clubbed feet as a unique syndrome, and it sits very well with me. If we all start using the phrase with our doctors, perhaps it will catch on, and by that passive recognition, someone will look towards methods to work with it.. I mean, there are plenty of thesis to be written, and having a name for our condition will give academics something to write about.
ReplyDelete