Recurrence of equinus foot deformity after tendo-achilles lengthening in patients with cerebral palsy.

BACKGROUND

Recurrence of equinus deformity after surgery is common in patients with cerebral palsy. This retrospective study was undertaken to estimate the recurrence rate of the equinus deformity after tendo-Achilles lengthening (TAL) in patients with cerebral palsy and to investigate the risk factors associated with the recurrence.

METHODS

Two-hundred forty three ambulatory patients with cerebral palsy, who underwent TAL for equinus foot deformity since 1995, and had undergone a preoperative and postoperative 3-dimensional gait analysis, were included. Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine the significant contributing factor for the recurrence of equinus foot deformity.

RESULTS

The mean patient age at surgery was 7.8±2.7 years and the mean follow-up duration was 8.1±3.4 years. Equinus deformity recurred in 22 of the 243 patients (9.1%) and the Kaplan-Meier survival estimate was shown to be 89.4% at 10 years not needing repeat surgery. According to the multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazard model, preoperative ankle dorsiflexion at initial contact (P=0.016) was the only significant factor for recurrence of equinus deformity after surgery. Age at surgery and the type of limb involvement were not associated with the recurrence (P=0.433 and 0.269). The cutoff values of preoperative gait kinematics between the nonrecurrence and recurrence groups were -19 degrees of ankle dorsiflexion at initial contact (P=0.018).

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that the severity of preoperative equinus deformity was a risk factor associated with recurrence after TAL in patients with cerebral palsy. Therefore, surgeons should consider the recurrence and later revision surgery for the patients with severe equinus foot deformity.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic level III.