Evaluation of outcome of treatment of congenital clubfoot.

The study was undertaken to determine whether existing systems of outcome evaluation of clubfoot are comparable; to determine the relationship between the shape of the foot, its function, and radiological tarsal relationships; and to identify which objective variables used in the assessment of clubfeet are reproducible. Fifty treated idiopathic clubfeet were assessed by the scoring systems of Laaveg and Ponseti, McKay, Magone, and Ghanem and Seringe. Although there was a good correlation between the scores, there was very poor agreement between the grading of feet by these different systems. The feet were also evaluated using a new scoring system that has 3 domains of evaluation, viz, morphological, functional, and radiological. Comparison of the scores in each of these domains showed that there was a correlation between morphology, function, and radiological measurements of tarsal alignment. Several of the criteria used in this new scoring system were reproducible.