Despite previous failed surgeries, we can still reconstruct feet deformed by Charcot-Marie-Tooth

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Despite previous failed surgeries, we can still reconstruct feet deformed by Charcot-Marie-Tooth

Posted on September 22, 2013 by

As you may already know, our Institute serves as a reference point for the treatment of feet damaged by neurological illnesses or injuries. For years we have been treating patients from Spain and Latin America who come here so that we can use innovative techniques to correct alignment and make feet work, and most importantly, get rid of the horrible orthopaedic braces and special shoes that many of these patients use.

Some of the people who come here have already been treated in other hospitals without success. When I say “without success,” what I mean is that they have not achieved the correct alignment of the feet, which need to be returned to the perfect structure upon which we place all of our weight when we walk. I’m asserting this because there are still many professionals who don’t realize that the origin of these neurological foot conditions is in the functioning of the muscles, and this is what really causes deformities. From cases of Charcot-Marie-Tooth to the sequels of polio or traumatic brain injuries, patients generally have some muscles that work and some that don’t, so if surgeries don’t deal with the muscles, there is no way that we could ever fix these feet.

I’m telling you this because the case that I am going to talk about today is that of an adolescent girl from the south of Spain. She came to us almost a year ago for difficulties walking due to a deformity caused byCharcot-Marie-Tooth. She had been operated on a few years prior, but they only did one surgery, so the foot eventually became deformed again. Her left foot wasequinus cavus varus and the right wascavovarus. The problem is that, on both feet, they had done a triple arthrodesis, which had fixed the bones in place, and yet they hadn’t touched the muscles.

When we operated on her, we had to completely take down the triple arthrodesis that had been done, that is, we had to cut the bones where they came together in order to put them in the correct position, principally the astragalus, which was rotated outward. We placed it inward and in line with the navicular bone. In addition,we transferred several tendons to the back of the foot so that it wouldn’t go limp when she picked it up to walk. We did a similar reconstruction on the right foot.

Now a few months have gone by and the patient has a totally different way of walking. She is now stable, and she no longer falls over, no longer needs to hold on to her brother in order to walk, as she did before we operated on her.