Conservative Treatment for Metatarsus Adductus, A Systematic Review of Literature

Abstract

There are various treatment approaches for the subjects with metatarsus adductus, including nonsurgical and surgical treatment. Nonsurgical treatments such as serial casting, modified shoes (Bebax shoe, Ipos antiadductus shoe) and orthoses (Wheaton brace, counter rotation system splint, Denis Brown bar, and Fillauer bar) are widely used in this regard. The main question posted here is which orthoses are more effective in correcting metatarsus adductus. Therefore, the aim of this review was to determine the efficiency of various nonsurgical treatments used for metatarsus adductus. MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trial, Cochrane Data base of systematic review (CDSR), Scopus and ISI Web of knowledge (from 1960 to 2021) were searched by predefined search strategies to screen eligible randomized controlled studies meeting established criteria. The quality of the studies was assessed based on Down and Black tool. 200 studies on this topic were reviewed and finally 11 studies which met the inclusion criteria were selected for final analysis. These studies evaluated the efficiency of nonsurgical treatment options on foot angle and deformity correction in the subjects with metatarsus adductus. Quality of the papers based on Downs and Black tool varied between 13 and 23. Some treatments such as Wheaton brace, rigid strap, exercise (manipulation), reverse last shoe and plaster cast are used for these subjects. Although good correction can be achieved with use of these treatment methods, some of them have complications which should be considered in this regard. It seems that Wheaton brace and Bebax shoe have fewer complications compared to other methods. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons.