Mumbai: Newborn with twisted leg defect treated with plaster therapy

Dr Raut used plaster to cure a newborn of clubfoot. Pic/Hanif Patel

A newborn suffering from a rare congenital disease, Clubfoot, was successfully treated for his condition by doctors at Vasai Virar Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation hospital. The treatment took a month-and-a-half where doctors cured the child by using plaster therapy instead of medication or injections. The plaster was cut by the medical team on Saturday. Clubfoot is a birth defect where children are born with twisted ankles. Its cause is still unknown. A rare condition, there are fewer than one million cases of clubfoot reported in India every year.

Aditya Vishwakarma was born on July 10 with twisted legs, which alarmed his parents who then contacted Dr Alhad Nandkumar Raut, an orthopaedic surgeon at DM Petit Municipal Hospital, Vasai. Raut has also treated other children born with clubfoot in the last one year using the same technique. "The child's mother was admitted at the hospital in July for delivery. During the procedure, doctors found that both his legs were in a twisted position. We contacted Dr Raut to take over the case then," the hospital said.

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Speaking to mid-day, Raut said, "Clubfoot is a rare disease. We see one case in a million births annually. It is a congenital disease but in a lot of conditions, parents and doctors tend to ignore and aggravate it. It is curable, but many doctors are unaware about it." He added that most of the time parents get an oil massage done to remove the defect, which only adds to the problem. His plaster therapy involved keeping the legs in the correct position and then binding them with plaster. In Vishwakarma's case, the plaster lasted one-and-a-half months. "On Saturday, we removed it and found out that his legs have taken normal shape. They are fully developed now. He will be able to walk properly in future, sans any difficulties," he said. While the disease is a rare one, the expert said it can be reversed by a simple plaster and if treatment begins from day one when the babies bones are still soft.

30K
Estimated no. of children born with clubfoot in India annually