Achilles tenotomy is a recognised step in the Ponseti technique for the correction of idiopathic congenital talipes equinovarus in most percutaneous cases. Its use has been limited in part by concern that the subsequent natural history of the tendon is unknown. In a study of 11 tendons in eight infants, eight tendons were shown to be clinically intact and ten had ultrasonographic evidence of continuity three weeks after tenotomy. At six weeks after tenotomy all tendons had both clinical and ultrasonographic evidence of continuity.
1. The results of treatment of 186 club feet have been reviewed. 2. Early strong repeated manipulation and splintage produced correction in all, but only sixty-five out of 186 remained acceptable at three years. The other 121 relapsed. 3. Relapse occurred in the first year in eight, between twelve and eighteen months in twenty-five, between eighteen and twenty-four months in twenty-three, and between twenty-four and thirty-six months in sixty-five. 4. Relapse was slightly commoner when treatment began after the first month of life. 5. Relapse was treated either by manipulation and plaster or by soft-tissue correction, leaving fifty-two out of 121 acceptable at three years and sixty-nine which were not acceptable (this includes those in plaster after soft-tissue correction, necessitated by relapse around the ages of two and a half and three and is thus adversely loaded). 6. The three year results in 186 feet were studied: 63 per cent were acceptable and 37 per cent were not. Five year results in eighty-seven feet were studied: 87·4 per cent were acceptable and 12·6 per cent were not. 7. Soft-tissue correction is described. It produced 89 per cent acceptable feet but 11 per cent relapses in 280 operations.
1 . A case of plantar Dupuytren's disease in a woman aged twenty-three is described. 2. A review of the literature has shown that the histology and rapid recurrence have led to an erroneous diagnosis of fibrosarcoma and treatment by amputation on several occasions.
Our investigations have shown that the late results of tarsal arthrodesis are good. We have endeavoured to find the disadvantages and to stress residual symptoms, but the general mpression after seeing these patients is that they were all well satisfied with the result. We think it should be added that these patients were selected in so far as they were all operated upon by masters of operative technique who were acknowledged authorities in this particular subject. Without the careful attention to detail and to the points discussed, these operations can be dismal failures and a burden to the patients concerned.
One hundred and twenty-nine unselected club feet were classified at birth into three grades of severity; 123 were followed up. The results of primary treatment were analysed and it is shown that the bad feet did worst. Serial splinting in plasters achieved lasting correction in nine in ten mild club feet, in half of the moderately deformed, but in only one in ten of the severely affected. Surgical correction succeeded in two out of three of the resistant feet, but had to be repeated in the others.
