1. There seem to be two distinct methods of destruction of the foot, once pain sensibility has been lost: the first is a slow erosion and shortening associated with perforating ulcers under the distal weight-bearing end of the foot. The second is a proximal disintegration of the tarsus in which mechanical forces often determine onset and progress of the condition.

2. Once the tarsus begins to disintegrate it is difficult to halt the rapid destruction of the foot.

3. It is possible to detect early stages of this condition in time to take preventive measures. Routine palpation of anaesthetic feet will reveal patches of warmth localised to bones and joints which are in a condition of strain. Radiographs of such feet and a study of posture and gait may define early changes which point to one of several possible patterns of disintegration which may follow.

4. These patterns are described and discussed and suggestions made for preventive and corrective measures.

1. With the object of perfecting the design of footwear for feet anaesthetic from leprosy, pressures on the soles of feet during walking were measured with transducers sufficiently thin to be worn inside ordinary shoes.

2. It was found that anaesthetic feet without deformity or muscle imbalance did not produce significantly higher pressures than normal feet during barefoot walking on a flat surface. The pressure distribution under drop feet with active posterior tibial muscles differed from normal, with increased pressure under the lateral forefoot and decreased pressures elsewhere.

3. Loss of toes or function of the toes results in high, sharp pressure peaks under the anterior end of the foot during push-off. In deformed feet these pressures are usually concentrated at one or two small areas.

4. In anaesthetic feet the prevention of trophic ulceration largely depends on the even distribution of pressure over the sole of the foot.

5. Moulding by carefully placed arch supports or metatarsal bars effectively redistributes plantar pressure.

6. A shoe with a rigid sole pivoting on a rocker near the centre of the foot most effectively reduces pressures under the forefoot of shortened, deformed feet.

7. We recommend the use of insoles made of microcellular rubber (approximately 1 5 degrees shore).

8. The importance of studying each deformed foot for areas of high pressure before fitting shoes is stressed; a pressure-indicating footprint is satisfactory for this purpose.

1. Tendon grafts, in order to survive, have to develop a blood supply from their immediate environment. This causes adhesions.

2. Their final range of movement is therefore a sum of the length to which these vascular adhesions will stretch, and the range of movement of the normal tissues to which the tendon has become adherent.

3. Thus it is important that the tendon graft should lie in a bed of yielding material, and that no unyielding structures should be divided in the same wound. When possible, blunt tunnelling between short transverse incisions is the method of choice for placement of grafts.

4. The most crippling adhesions are those that grow from an imperfectly sutured cut end of tendon, leaving it unsatisfied. A new method of tendon anastomosis designed to prevent such adhesions is described.

5. A tendon grafting technique for intrinsic paralysis of the fingers in leprosy, using a radial extensor of the wrist as the motor and the plantaris tendon as the graft, is described.

6. A study of 861 fingers after the operation is presented.

7. The importance of re-education after operation is stressed.

1. The intrinsic paralysis that occurs in leprosy has been treated by the sublimis transfer of Stiles and Bunnell for the past nine years. Since 1951 300 hands have been operated upon, and 150 patients selected geographically have been followed up in this study.

2. The patients have been assessed by a standard method involving: 1) Measurement of range of movement of the interphalangeal joint (unassisted movement, assisted active movement and passive movement); 2) grasp index; and 3) photographs of each hand in six standard positions.

3. Assessment of the open hand—The Stiles-Bunnell procedure is effective in achieving a fully open hand: 73 per cent of the fingers scored good or excellent results. A defect in the operation is that it sometimes hyperextends the interphalangeal joint, producing an "intrinsic plus" hand.

4. Assessment of sequence of joint flexion—The Stiles-Bunnell operation restores satisfactory mechanism of closure of the hand in 93 per cent of cases—that is, the metacarpo-phalangeal joints flex before the interphalangeal joints.

5. The closedfist assessment—About 30 per cent of patients had some defect in the complete closure of the fist after operation. In 5 per cent of cases the fingers did not reach the palm after operation.

6. Complications—The "intrinsic plus" defect is commonest in the best and most mobile hands. This is a late complication which gets worse in succeeding years. It can be corrected by Littler's operation together with a profundus tenodesis in the middle segment of the finger. Lateral deviation of fingers due to radial-side attachment of the transferred tendon can be avoided by ulnar-side attachment of the tendon used for the index finger. Bowstringing of the sublimis stump in the flexor sheath may be avoided by division of the sublimis at it insertion. Weakness of grasp and pinch from loss of sublimis may be avoided by using only one or two sublimis tendons split into several strands. The index finger sublimis should be left in position.

7. It is concluded that the sublimis transfer of Stiles and Bunnell is a very powerful corrective of intrinsic paralysis of the fingers. Its chief defect is that it is too powerful and produces the opposite deformity. For this reason the use of this operation should be restricted to fingers in which there is some limitation of passive extension. For fully mobile fingers an operation should be selected which does not remove the sublimis from its normal position.