Ponseti Initiative
International Clubfoot Symposium, September 12-14, 2007
Clubfoot is a common and crippling foot disorder. Surgery often leaves the foot stiff and painful and has reasonably high complication rates.
A technique of manipulation and castings with minimally invasive procedure was developed at the University of Iowa by Dr. Ignacio Ponseti in the 1950's. Thirty-year follow-up studies on this method have been published in Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS). This method has not however been widely adapted, even in the United States.
Around 1998 a patient at Iowa started an internet site for parents and children with clubfoot that made them aware that the condition could be treated with minimal invasion and over a relatively short time frame (3-4 weeks), with a high success rate (greater than 90%).
Because of this patients began flocking to the University of Iowa Hospital from around the world and the United States to have this method provided to their children. In turn orthopaedic surgeons, realizing the tremendous demand for this method, began going to Iowa to learn how to do it. University of Iowa Hospital has had a steady stream of visitors and an increasing volume of patients ever since.
A Canadian orthopaedic surgeon, Ugandan by birth, Shafique Pirani, came to learn the method and started a clinic, in Uganda, to cure this disabling condition. He trained orthopaedic surgeons and more importantly technicians to apply the method. This has essentially cured this condition in Uganda. A similar program is under way in Nicaragua.
It is estimated that 130,000-140,000 babies are born every year around the world with clubfoot. Around 3,000-5,000 are born each year in the United States with clubfoot. Out of more than 20,000 orthopaedic surgeons in the U.S., only 33 are currently trained in the "Ponseti Method."
The University holds clinics to instruct surgeons on use of the Ponseti technique to treat children born with clubfeet. For further information contact Jose Morcuende, MD, University of Iowa Hospital, email: jose-morcuende@uiowa.edu, phone: 319-384-8041.
Project of the University of Iowa Hospital, Department of Orthopaedics, and the Pediatric Society of North America.
The University is also interested in discussing clinics held outside the U.S. It has already held clinics in Columbia and Nicaragua, and has trained surgeons from Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. It will shortly be holding a clinic in Brazil.
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