Dow University establishes Club-Foot Ponseti - Free Clinic‏

Dow University establishes Club-Foot Ponseti Clinic for FREE treatment of children with congenital clubfoot disease.


KARACHI, 2nd February 2014: Foot deformities are very common in newborn children. Globally, 2 out of 1000 children are affected from it. This deformity is more in boys as compared to girls. The majority of foot deformity can be treated without operation. An American research and Orthopaediatric surgeon - Dr. Ponseti discovered a technique which is painless, fast, cost-effective and successful in almost 100% of all congenital clubfoot cases. Dow University of Health Sciences established a Club Foot Ponseti Clinic at its Ojha Campus to treat children with congenital clubfoot cases free of cost. These views were expressed by experts at a Public Awareness Seminar, after the inauguration of Club Foot Ponseti Clinic. It was attended by Dr. Morcuende - Chief Medical Director of the Ponseti International, Dr. Anis Bhatti of JPMC, Prof. Dr. M. Masroor, Prof. Pervaiz Anjum, Prof. Mujahid Humail along with senior Orthopaediatric surgeons and general public as well.

The experts further said that; the manipulative treatment of clubfoot deformity is based on the inherent properties of the connective tissue, cartilage, and bone, which respond to the proper mechanical stimuli created by the gradual reduction of the deformity. The ligaments, joint capsules, and tendons are stretched under gentle manipulations. A plaster cast is applied after each manipulation, to retain the degree of correction and soften the ligaments. The displaced bones are thus gradually brought into the correct alignment with their joint surfaces progressively remodeled yet maintaining congruency. After two months of manipulation and casting the foot appears slightly over-corrected. After a few weeks in splints however, the foot looks normal.

They further revealed that the majority of clubfeet can be corrected in infancy in about six to eight weeks with the proper gentle manipulations and plaster casts. The treatment is based on a sound understanding of the functional anatomy of the foot and of the biological response of muscles, ligaments and bone to corrective position changes gradually obtained by manipulation and casting.