What is a congenital vertical talus?
A vertical talus or a congenital vertical talus is a infrequently found deformity of the foot which is typically present at birth. It is an severe kind of flatfoot which can affect one or both feet. The talus bone is small bone in the ankle that points forwards in a horizontal direction and sits amongst the tibia and fibula bones of lower leg and the calcaneus bone to make the ankle joint complex. In a foot with congenital vertical talus, the talus bone points down towards the floor in a vertical position. The consequences of this is usually a stiff and rigid foot with no arch which is usually termed as a rocker bottom foot. The condition may appear by itself or may be a part of a bigger syndrome for example arthrogryposis or spina bifida. There's also a mild type of this disability called oblique talus that is midway between the vertical and horizontal forms of the talus. This type is a lot more flexible and just appears when weightbearing.
A congenital vertical talus is generally diagnosed at birth, however it can occasionally be detected on ultrasound examination in the pregnancy. An evaluation of the feet will probably present the problem and it is used to figure out precisely how inflexible it is. There is certainly commonly no pain initially, however, if it's not treated the foot will continue to be deformed and with later walking it's going to typically become symptomatic. An x-ray can certainly pick up the talus in a more vertical alignment. A number of specialists look at a congenital vertical talus to be a mild type of a clubfoot.
Normally, some surgical procedures are typically necessary to fix the congenital vertical talus problem. However, the orthopaedic surgeon may like to consider using a period of stretching or bracing to try and improve the mobility and posture of the foot. While in only a few cases will this do away with the necessity of surgical procedures entirely it is more likely to help reduce the total amount and extent of surgical procedures that is needed and result in a improved outcome from surgery. Bracing is necessary over a number of appointments and replaced weekly to help keep moving the foot right into a more corrected position. When there is inadequate of an improvement because of this approach then surgical procedures will probably be required. The degree of the surgery might depend on how much the casting improved the foot and exactly how inflexible the deformity is. When the foot is rigidly deformed, then this surgical treatment will have to be more extensive and is usually carried out before 1 year of age. The whole point of the surgical treatment is to fix the position of the bones inside the foot. To accomplish this usually needs a few tendons and ligaments to be extended to permit the bones of the foot to be moved. Those bones are then kept in place with pins and placed in a splint. These bone pins normally get removed following 4 to 6 weeks. A special shoe or brace may need to be used for a period of time soon after that to retain correction.