Associations of intracompartmental leg pressures and radiographic findings in congenital talipes equinovarus.

The etiopathogenesis of congenital talipes equinovarus remains mysterious. The authors investigated the role of increased intracompartmental leg pressures as a causal relationship with this deformity by measuring the pressures in 25 children aged between 6 months and 1 year with unilateral talipes equinivarus before surgical release. The deep posterior intracompartmental pressure in the leg with talipes equinovarus was greater than the other compartments, and the deep and superficial posterior intracompartmental pressures were also significantly higher than those of the contralateral normal sides (p < 0.05). There were linear correlations between the posterior intracompartmental pressure of affected legs and the Kite index, tibiocalcaneal angle and talo-first metatarsal angle of the affected legs. Deep posterior intracompartmental pressure is a strong predictor of abnormality in the Kite index. The present study showed a probable causal relationship between increased deep posterior intracompartmental pressure and etiopathogenesis of talipes equinovarus.