Description
In this presentation, Steve Mannion discusses global clubfoot care during the World Orthopaedic Concern UK's session at the BOA Congress 2020. He highlights that nearly 200,000 babies are born with clubfoot each year, with a significant majority in low and middle-income countries where access to treatment is limited. The Ponseti Method, developed by Spanish surgeon Ignacio Ponseti, has emerged as the gold standard for treating clubfoot, emphasizing manipulation and casting.
Mannion outlines the Africa Clubfoot Training Project aimed at standardizing training resources and developing local faculty to reduce reliance on expatriate experts. The project has successfully produced trained practitioners across 18 African countries. Despite advancements, only about 13% of affected infants globally received treatment by 2015, indicating a great need for further initiatives.
He introduces the '2020 Vision' plan to establish sustainable national clubfoot programs in countries with high incidence rates, projecting the cost of implementing this strategy to be around 160 million dollars. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on treatment access are acknowledged, with current efforts to restart clubfoot programs gradually.
Mannion reflects on the need for ongoing surgical training, given that a fraction of clubfoot cases may still require surgical intervention, even in successful Ponseti-based programs. He concludes by emphasizing the significance of developing global strategies to eliminate clubfoot-related disabilities by 2030, while recognizing that surgical methods will remain an essential part of clubfoot treatment.