A vertical talus or a congenital vertical talus is a infrequent deformity of the foot which is usually present at birth. It's an severe type of flat foot that can impact one or the two feet. The talus bone is a smaller bone inside the ankle which points forwards generally in a horizontal direction and sits between the tibia and fibula bones of the leg and the heel bone to create the ankle joint complex. In a foot with congenital vertical talus, the talus points towards the ground in a vertical position. The consequences of this may be a inflexible and rigid foot that has no arch that is often termed as a rocker bottom foot. The issue may appear by itself or might be part of a wider syndrome including arthrogryposis or spina bifida. Also there is a mild form of this problem referred to as oblique talus which is halfway between the vertical and horizontal types of the deformity. This sort is much more flexible and just appears when standing.

The congenital vertical talus is usually identified at birth, however it can occasionally be discovered with ultrasound exam during the pregnancy. An examination of the foot will probably present the problem and is used to determine exactly how rigid it is. There is certainly typically no pain at first, however, if it is not treated the foot will stay misshaped and with later weightbearing it is going to commonly turn out to be symptomatic. An x-ray can obviously observe the talus in its increased vertical position. A number of specialists consider a congenital vertical talus as a minor form of a clubfoot.

Generally, some surgical treatment is usually needed to deal with the congenital vertical talus disability. Having said that, the orthopaedic doctor may want to try a period of stretching out or casting to try and increase the mobility and position of the foot. While in not very many cases will this get rid of the necessity of surgical treatment entirely it is more likely to reduce the total amount and magnitude of surgery that is required and lead to a improved end result from surgery. Bracing is necessary over a number of clinic visits and changed weekly to keep moving the foot right into a a lot more fixed posture. When there is inadequate of an improvement using this approach then surgical procedures will probably be needed. The level of the surgical treatment can count on exactly how much the casting altered the foot and exactly how rigid the deformity is. In the event the foot is rigidly misshaped, then this surgical treatment will need to be much more substantial and is generally completed just prior to 1 year old. The whole reason for the surgical procedures are to improve the positioning of the bones within the foot. To do this usually needs a few tendons and ligaments to become lengthened to allow for the bones of the foot to be relocated. Those bones will be locked in position using screws and placed in a brace. These bone pins normally get removed after four to six weeks. A particular shoe or splint might need to be worn for a period of time following that to preserve correction.