Abstract

Talipes equinovarus (Clubfoot) is the commonest foot deformity with variable incidence across races. Exact etiology remains elusive. The objective of this study is to describe the epidemiology of clubfoot in our centre, looking for predisposing factors. This is a descriptive clinic based epidemiologic study of 106 feet belonging to 69 subjects from January 2014 – December 2015 was conducted. Structured questionnaires were administered to clinically confirmed clubfoot subject’s guardian or biologic mothers. Phenotypic data from clubfoot subject were also recorded. Analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 22 for windows. Results revealed the age range of the patients as 3 days to 9 years, with a mean age of 46.17 ± 92.03 weeks. Thirty-seven (53.7%) patients had bilateral deformity while 13 (18.8%) patients had right-sided deformity, and 19 (27.5%) patients had left-sided deformity. Majority 40 (58.0%) of the patients were firstborn out of which 28 were males. Only 2 (2.89%) patients are products of multiple gestations. All mothers were none smokers and there was no reported family history of foot deformities or clubfoot. The mean maternal age was 25.81 years ± 4.99 years. The average length/height of patients at presentation was 64.27 ± 23.93 cm. The average shoulder span of the patients at presentation was 23.93 ± 15.86 cm. The study thus revealed that young maternal age, gender and firstborn are predisposing factors in the etiology of clubfoot.

Key words: Clubfoot, idiopathic, predisposing factors, epidemiology.