Congenital talipes equinovarus: frequency of associated malformations not identified by prenatal ultrasound

Abstract

In this consecutive series of infants with isolated talipes equinovarus, 95.8% had no additional malformations identified by examination at birth. None of the additional findings were severe enough to affect the medical prognosis of the affected infant. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Diagnostic accuracy, work-up, and outcomes of pregnancies with clubfoot detected by prenatal sonography

“…Conversion rates from prenatal isolated clubfoot to postnatal complex clubfoot up to 14% have been reported . According to a recent study, only 6 (4.2%) of 142 infants with isolated clubfoot were found at birth to have associated malformations that had not been identified during pregnancy. In our study, the high conversion rate of 11% emphasizes the need for work‐up and parental counseling, even in low‐risk populations, because isolated clubfoot could be the only sonographic manifestation of a serious neuromuscular disorder, such as arthrogryposis .…”

Congenital talipes equinovarus (clubfoot)

“…In all, 70e75% of isolated cases are confirmed at delivery, with a reported false-positive rate of 10e20%; 5e13% are confirmed as complex postnatally. 2,12,13 Associated Abnormalities…”

QUESTION 2: What is the predictive value of an antenatal ultrasound showing apparently isolated talipes equinovarus?

“…Seven were excluded as they did not adequately define the key population (fetally diagnosed isolated TEV), either because apparent isolated TEV and ‘complex’ cases were inappropriately treated as a homogeneous group3 11 13 17 18 21 or because the case-capture mechanism for the series (eg, TEV identified at birth) would not pick up all (or a representative sample of) fetally diagnosed isolated TEV, including false positives 22. Furthermore, seven studies (four further) were excluded due to a loss to follow-up of >10%, which might lead to selection bias 6 8 11 13 18–20.…”