A vertical talus or a congenital vertical talus is a rare disability of the foot which is typically present at birth. It is an severe kind of flat foot which could impact one or the two feet. The talus is small bone inside the ankle that points forward generally in a horizontal direction and sits amongst the tibia and fibula bones of the leg and the calcaneus bone to create the ankle joint structure. In a foot that has a congenital vertical talus, the talus bone points down towards the ground in a vertical posture. The consequences with this is a stiff and rigid foot without any arch which is frequently termed as a rocker bottom foot. The problem may occur on it's own or could be a part of a wider syndrome such as arthrogryposis or spina bifida. There is also a less severe form of this deformity known as oblique talus that is midway between the vertical and horizontal kinds of the deformity. This type is a lot more flexible and just appears when standing.
A congenital vertical talus will likely be determined at birth, but it can sometimes be picked up with ultrasound exam in the pregnancy. An assessment of the feet will normally show the issue and is used to establish just how inflexible it is. There is usually no pain to begin with, however, if it is neglected the foot will stay deformed and with later weightbearing it will eventually typically become painful. An x-ray can certainly see the talus in its increased vertical position. A number of specialists look at a congenital vertical talus as a minor form of a clubfoot.
Generally, some surgery is usually needed to manage the congenital vertical talus disability. Nevertheless, the orthopaedic doctor may want to consider using a amount of stretching out or bracing in an attempt to improve the flexibility and position of the foot. While in not very many cases will this eliminate the need for surgical procedures entirely it is more likely to lessen the total amount and extent of surgery that is needed and lead to a much better end result from surgery. Bracing is required over a number of appointments and replaced weekly to help keep moving the foot right into a much more fixed posture. If there is inadequate of an improvement because of this process then surgery will most likely be needed. The amount of the surgical treatment will depend on just how much the casting altered the foot and just how rigid the disability is. When the foot is rigidly deformed, then the surgical treatment will have to be more extensive and it is usually carried out before 1 year old. The entire point of the surgical treatment is to fix the position of the bones within the foot. To do this generally requires several tendons and ligaments to be extended allowing the bones of the foot to be moved. These bones will be locked in position using pins and placed in a cast. These bone pins generally get taken out following four to six weeks. A particular shoe or splint might need to be used for a period of time following that to maintain the correction.