24-hour weekly club foot clinic opens at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital
Posted on: 27/May/2014 9:59:02 AM
Chennaites have got its second club foot clinic for treatment of the congenital deformity at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (GH). This weekly outpatient clinic will function round-the-clock on Tuesdays.
In children born with the deformity, the foot is severely twisted downward and inward making walking difficult or impossible. It can be corrected without surgery using the Ponseti technique and a small procedure — tenotomy.
A clinic is already functioning at Institute of Child Health (ICH), Egmore. The clinics have also been set up at the government hospitals in Thanjavur, Madurai, Coimbatore, Vellore and Dharmapuri.
Two more will come up soon at the government hospitals in Nagercoil and Tuticorin.
The clinic at GH will function from 7.30 a.m. on Tuesday to 7.30 a.m., Wednesday. It will function at the orthopaedic OP till 2 p.m. and at ward 205 of Tower Block-2 for the remaining period.
The Ponseti method, the alternative to surgery, uses a series of plaster casts over four to six weeks and is followed by tenotomy to correct the tendon in the affected foot. After this, the child should wear foot abduction braces for 23 hours a day for three months, and then during night and while sleeping for three to four years to prevent recurrence. The outpatient clinic will function between Tuesday and Wednesday morning every week
This is to enable parents to bring in children after the day’s work is done
