Being born with a congenital deformity can be devastating. As a parent, you may struggle to understand why, how, and what should be done. It is incomprehensible to allow your child to suffer or struggle and you shouldn’t have to sit by and be helpless. When Charles Woodson was born with clubfoot, his parent probably never conceived that their son born with a foot deformity would someday be a successful football player. Clubfoot is a congenital foot deformity that occurs in about 1 in every 1,000 births and is twice as common in young boys as girls.
Clubfoot can be identified at birth and the foot will have an appearance of turning inward. The medical name for the deformity is Talipes Equinovarus. The exact cause of clubfoot is still widely debated and unknown. No genetic component has been discovered but statistics show that children whose parents or siblings have clubfoot are twice as likely to be born with club foot.
The child does not experience any pain, but if left untreated, the ability of the child to ambulate in the future is very limited. Disability would be inevitable. Over the last 25 years the treatment protocols have been debated. The current standard of treatment involves a series of casting starting shortly after birth. This treatment method is referred to as the Ponsseti technique. The cast is changed by a trained physician weekly and a series of manipulations and stretching are performed. Casting can be as few as 4 weeks but the amount of time taken correct the deformity is dependent on the complexity of the deformity. Most children also need their achillies tendon lengthened, a minor procedure done through a minimal incision. Fallowing correction of the deformity, the child will need to be in a series of braces that help maintain the correction. Less than 20 percent of children treated by casting will need surgery in the future to correct any residual deformity.
Though the child is bound to braces and continued foot care up the age of four, the deformity and treatment has little effect on the child’s development. By the time the patients is gearing up to ambulate, the braces are worn minimally, mostly while the child is asleep. Most children go on to have a normal childhood with few, if any, limitation. Often the only residual defect is the clubfoot having a slightly smaller size than the normal foot. If treatment is delayed, children may be subject to more invasive surgery and longer recovery times but surgical procedures for clubfoot have been well studied and discussed in the literature with good success.
From Clubfoot to athlete, there have been many professions who were born with the congenital deformity who grew up to be successful athletes. Charles Woodson is a Super Bowl Champion. Kristi Yamaguchi is a gold medal figure-skater. From MVP baseball players to star soccer players, people born with clubfeet have proven to overcome their congenital deformities.
Showing posts with label childrens feet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label childrens feet. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, August 27, 2010
The Dangers of Lawn Mowers
Some people enjoy cutting the lawn. Some give the job to their child or the neighbor. Who would think a common summer chore can be so dangerous? There are over 77,000 lawn mower injuries every year. Over 3,000 of them are in children. Some people even die after a lawn mower injury
I recently had a patient that lost part of his foot from a mower accident. It is devastating to see how much damage a blade can cause. After some research, I discovered exactly how much strength is behind the monster on wheels. Being hit by a mower blade is equivalent to being hit by a 21 pound object dropped from a height of 100 feet or 1.17 pounds traveling 232mph. This is three times the force of a 0.357 magnum gun!
Fortunately, these injuries are preventable, but we have to start taking our lawn mower chores more seriously. So many people choose to cut the grass bare foot. It feels good to have the grass between your toes but it is such a bad idea. First, there are a lot of things to step on especially in long grass where sharp object can be easily hiding. Secondly, the sharp mower blade can easily cut debris in the lawn into smaller sharper object. Though a shoe will not be strong enough to withstand the force of the blade, it will help decrease some severity of the injury.
Make sure you children understand the dangers of mowers. It is hard for a child to understand the complexity of a lawn mower. A push mower looks and sounds a lot like a vacuum. Since children are smaller, the injuries from a lawn mower are much more devastating than those seen adults. Adults will often lose toes or part of their foot, a child may lose their entire foot or part of their limb. Children are also more likely to put their hands near the blades and lose fingers, hands, and arms. There have also been many reports of accidentally running over children with the lawn mower. Remember to pay attention to what is behind you and tell your children they cannot come near you when you are cutting the grass.
These types of injuries are very prone to infections since the blade is so dirty. Luckily, early antibiotic treatments after such an injury cuts the rate of infection to a near minimum. If you suffer such an injury, it is imperative that you report to the ER immediately. The sooner you see a doctor, the less likely you will have complications from the injury.
My patient was lucky his injury was not more severe. He had 3 of his toes cut off with the blade and we then decided to remove his existing toes off to help him with ambulation and shoe fitting in the future. He is now walking normally; he is back to his normal job, and he is wearing normal shoes.
I recently had a patient that lost part of his foot from a mower accident. It is devastating to see how much damage a blade can cause. After some research, I discovered exactly how much strength is behind the monster on wheels. Being hit by a mower blade is equivalent to being hit by a 21 pound object dropped from a height of 100 feet or 1.17 pounds traveling 232mph. This is three times the force of a 0.357 magnum gun!
Fortunately, these injuries are preventable, but we have to start taking our lawn mower chores more seriously. So many people choose to cut the grass bare foot. It feels good to have the grass between your toes but it is such a bad idea. First, there are a lot of things to step on especially in long grass where sharp object can be easily hiding. Secondly, the sharp mower blade can easily cut debris in the lawn into smaller sharper object. Though a shoe will not be strong enough to withstand the force of the blade, it will help decrease some severity of the injury.
Make sure you children understand the dangers of mowers. It is hard for a child to understand the complexity of a lawn mower. A push mower looks and sounds a lot like a vacuum. Since children are smaller, the injuries from a lawn mower are much more devastating than those seen adults. Adults will often lose toes or part of their foot, a child may lose their entire foot or part of their limb. Children are also more likely to put their hands near the blades and lose fingers, hands, and arms. There have also been many reports of accidentally running over children with the lawn mower. Remember to pay attention to what is behind you and tell your children they cannot come near you when you are cutting the grass.
These types of injuries are very prone to infections since the blade is so dirty. Luckily, early antibiotic treatments after such an injury cuts the rate of infection to a near minimum. If you suffer such an injury, it is imperative that you report to the ER immediately. The sooner you see a doctor, the less likely you will have complications from the injury.
My patient was lucky his injury was not more severe. He had 3 of his toes cut off with the blade and we then decided to remove his existing toes off to help him with ambulation and shoe fitting in the future. He is now walking normally; he is back to his normal job, and he is wearing normal shoes.
