VIDEO: Compromise of cervical ligament of the foot may lead to worse flatfoot deformity
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Key takeaways:
- Results showed patients with flatfoot deformity had more compromise of the spring ligament vs. controls.
- Researchers said the cervical ligament should be considered in foot reconstruction surgery.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In this video, Scott J. Ellis, MD, discusses results that indicate the cervical ligament in the subtalar joint may need further examination in foot reconstruction surgery, especially in patients with flatfoot deformity.
“Basically, what we found is that the flatfoot patients had compromise of the spring ligament more than our control patients and the worse the cervical and spring ligament became, the worse deformed the foot was, particularly in abduction,” Ellis, an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery, told Healio about the study, which was a Roger A. Mann Award Finalist at the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society Annual Meeting.
“The take-home is that, going forward, we’re going to have to start looking at [the cervical] ligament,” Ellis added. “We need to study it more, and we’re going to need to develop techniques to recreate or reconstruct that ligament as part of our flatfoot reconstructive surgeries. And my guess is that, over time, this is going to help increase or improve our patient outcomes with that surgery.”