A vertical talus or a congenital vertical talus is a infrequent disability of the foot which is in most cases found at birth. It is an extreme type of flat foot which can impact one or the two feet. The talus bone is small bone in the ankle that points forwards in a horizontal direction and sits amongst the tibia and fibula bones of the leg and the calcaneus bone to create the ankle joint complex. With a foot that has a congenital vertical talus, the talus is directed towards the ground in a vertical direction. The implications with this is usually a inflexible and rigid foot without any arch which is frequently termed as a rocker bottom foot. The problem may appear on it's own or can be a part of a bigger syndrome such as arthrogryposis or spina bifida. Also there is a less serious form of this problem referred to as oblique talus that is midway between the horizontal and vertical types of the problem. This particular type is a lot more flexible and only shows up when standing.
The congenital vertical talus is frequently diagnosed at birth, however it can occasionally be found with sonography in the pregnancy. An examination of the feet will normally show the problem and is used to decide precisely how inflexible it is. There is certainly commonly no pain initially, but if it is left untreated the foot will remain deformed and with later walking it is going to commonly become symptomatic. An x-ray should certainly observe the talus in a abnormal vertical position. Several specialists look at a congenital vertical talus to be a mild type of a clubfoot.
Normally, some surgical procedures are typically needed to manage the congenital vertical talus problem. However, the pediatric doctor might want to try a period of stretching out or casting in an attempt to increase the mobility and posture of the foot. While in not very many cases will this do away with the need for surgical procedures altogether it is more likely to lessen the amount and magnitude of surgical procedures that is required and result in a much better final result from surgery. Bracing is necessary over a number of appointments and changed weekly to maintain moving the foot right into a more corrected position. When there is inadequate of an improvement with this strategy then surgical procedures will likely be required. The level of the surgical procedures could rely on exactly how much the casting altered the foot and how rigid the disability is. In the event the foot is rigidly misshaped, then this surgery will have to be a lot more considerable and it is usually completed before 1 year of age. The whole purpose of the surgical procedure is to improve the positioning of the bones inside the foot. To get this done generally needs several tendons and ligaments to be lengthened to allow for the bones of the foot to be relocated. These bones are then kept in place using screws and placed in a cast. These bone pins generally get removed following 4 to 6 weeks. A special shoe or splint might need to be used for a period of time following that to preserve correction.