A group of doctors from the International Society of Prosthetics and Orthotics have instituted a new project that uses modern technology to treat children with clubfoot.
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The boy’s leg before being treated.< /> |
VietNamNet
A three-year-old ethnic boy Leo Van Ngoi, who had suffered from a heavy clubfoot since he was born in 2007, in the remote hamlet of Mon in Co Ngoi Village of the north-western
Ngoi was lucky because he was among dozen of children with clubfoot that had been diagnosed by hamlet medical worker Lo Van Hai.
“When my son was three-month’s old, Hai came to visit my house and saw my boy’s clubfoot. He immediately asked us to bring our son to the provincial general hospital where he was treated with the Ponsetive method by an international project.
“My son can now work and play with other children. His future would have been ruined if he hadn’t been diagnosed early enough. We expressed our huge thanks to Hai and other doctors from the International Society of the Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) and Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (POF),” said Ngoi’s mother.
Dr Luc Van Huu of the Son La provincial
Training workshop
A group of doctors, from the ISPO led by Dr John Fisk and director of POF Raymond Pye, have introduced Ponseti, the most modern and effective method used to treat children with clubfoot in the country.
Speaking at a training workshop held this week in Ha Noi for nearly one hundred of medical workers from Viet Nam’s seven mountainous provinces of Thanh Hoa, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Lai Chau, Cao Bang, Lang Son and Quang Ninh, Dr John Fisk said “the aim of the project is to expand the use of the Ponseti method in treating clubfoot by establishing one hospital in each province with qualified Ponseti trained staff.”
Ponseti treatment has already been carried out in four provinces. It will be expanded to another seven provinces, with additional financial support from POF and other NGO’s such as ISPO.
“The project will continue to expand the network of hospitals providing Ponseti treatment for all needy locations in
Another aim of the project is to ensure parents or the general public are informed about this successful treatment method and the location of the treatment hospital in each province, said Raymond Pye from POF.
“POF is educating commune and village nurses with printed materials and also using mass media such as television to promote this treatment,” he said.
Dr Ngo Toan, head of the
“Medical workers at local communities, districts and provinces and other relevant agencies as well as the mass media should take more responsibility in diagnosing children with clubfoot to help them walk and prevent any handicaps that would occur if not discovered or treated late,” Toan said.
Positive results
“Through our orthopaedic surgical work in
“Through demonstration projects in Son La and the former
Treatment project
Pye said “The implementation of our demonstration projects in Son La and Ha Tay consist of activities such as training doctors from Son La Provincial Hospital and the former
Doctors involved in the POF clubfoot project have taken initial short courses on the Ponseti method from Vietcot and have received additional training from the Da Nang Orthopaedic Centre.
Training maternity hospital staff and nurses throughout Son La and Ha Tay in recognising and referring clubfoot cases.
The goal of the seminars is to introduce district and commune level clinical staff to the clubfoot project, show them how to recognise clubfoot, and instruct them on how to refer patients to the appropriate hospitals.
Along with the workshops (presented by Ponseti-trained doctors), each nurse receives printed reference materials, posters for the local clinics, and educational brochures to give to parents in their communes.
Educating parents about clubfoot treatment and their role is vital in ensuring its success.
In addition to the educational materials that are distributed to parents by the seminar-trained nurses, POF is cooperating with other local networks to help distribute posters, brochures, and other educational materials.
Developing locally fabricated Foot Abduction Braces (the corrective shoes worn by babies after they finish the casting sequence), has been done in partnership with the former
Hundreds of children, particularly those in remote areas with clubfoot are expected to be treated with the Ponseti method in the future.
What is clubfoot and why is it a problem in
· Clubfoot, talipes equinovarus, is a congenital condition, present at birth, causing the foot to bend progressively inward and downward as the child grows.
· Clubfoot occurs in 1-3 babies out of every 1,000 born worldwide.
· If left untreated, clubfoot causes severe deformity in one or both feet resulting in painfully crippling, lifelong disability.
· In developing countries, clubfoot is the single most common congenital cause of physical disability. In the
· To date, most healthcare professionals in northern
· In rural
· In 2006, approximately 1/3 the surgeries funded by POF were for neglected clubfoot cases.
What can be done about clubfoot?
· The Ponseti Method is a non-surgical, early intervention treatment method pioneered in the 1950s by Dr Ignacio Ponseti, a surgeon at the
· The method involves manual manipulations of the foot combined with serial castings while the child is still an infant and the tissues and ligaments are still pliable. The casting phase is followed by a shoe-brace protocol which maintains the correction during critical years of growth.
· When executed correctly, the Ponseti Method has a 94 per cent success rate. Typically, the treated foot/feet look and function normally into adulthood.
· Ponseti is a low-cost, low-tech, and internationally accepted protocol, ideally suited to implementation in developing countries. It has been used successfully during a 4-year pilot project in
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