Preliminary results of 97 percutaneous gastrocnemius muscular lengthening operations in neurologically healthy children with an equinus contracture.

BACKGROUND

We report a gastrocnemius lengthening in neurologically healthy children, whose gastrocnemius equinus could not be corrected non-operatively.

METHODS

Fifty-five children with an equinus contracture were included in this study. Ninety-seven operations were performed in these patients. The mean age was 11.5 years [6-16] and sixty percent of the patients were male. After 12 weeks we measured dorsiflexion post-surgery and after one year all parents of patients were telephoned and asked about their satisfaction with the result of the surgical treatment. Persistence of pre-operative complaints and complications were evaluated.

RESULTS

Ankle dorsiflexion significantly improved by more than 11° post-surgery compared with preoperative (p=0.01). The mean satisfaction was 8.0 [4-10] on a 10-point VAS scale. Except one complication of ankle fracture during surgery, no other clinically relevant complications were observed. At follow up 50% of the patients have no complaints, 47% reported an improvement but some persisting complaints and 3% of the patients report no improvement.

CONCLUSION

Percutaneous muscular gastrocnemius lengthening can be used to correct gastrocnemius equinus in otherwise healthy children, who have not benefited from prior nonsurgical treatment.