We report our experience at the Pediatric Hospital “Ricardo Gutierrez” in Buenos Aires. 11 diplegic patients (8 male, 3 female) who presented severe neurological valgus feet were treated with the Dennyson Fulford technique between 1996 and 2000. 7 patients had a bilateral deformity and 4 unilateral deformity . Patients’ ages averaged 9.5 years (range, 7–12 years). The average follow up was 2 years and 3 months (range, 7 months–5 years). We took into consideration the following parameters to evaluate the results: 1- hind foot position, 2- adaptation to the orthosis 3- pain. The results were excellent in 10 feet, good in 6 feet and poor in 2 feet. The results obtained with the subtalar fusion using a screw for fixation coupled with bone graft were considered satisfactory on obtaining 88% of good and fair results and a good acceptance among patients. We consider that the Dennyson Fulford technique allows an proper reduction with few complications and we emphasize it as the best option among other current surgical techniques for this pathology.
We report 16 patients (18 hips) treated between 1997 and 1999. The average age was 5 years and 3 months (range, 2–9 years). Of all the hips evaluated, 13 (72%) corresponded to diplegic patients and 5 (28%) to tetra-plegic patients. The surgical plan consisted on femoral osteotomy combined with Dega pericetabular osteotomy coupled with adductor and psoas tenotomy using as a variable the reduction of the hip by the anterior approach depending on each case. We used the following criteria to evaluate results: 1 – pain, 2 – abduction range, 3 – Reimmers index, 4 – acetabular index. Diplegic patients had good (78%), fair (12%) and poor (12%) results. Tetraplegic patients had good (25%), fair (50%) and poor (25%) results in this short follow up. On analyzing the cases, we observed an adequate development of the neurologic hips when using the acetabuloplasty with the Dega technique because it minimized the risk of coverage loss, as commonly seen in these kind of patients due to the progressive valgus during the postoperative period.
