Metatarsus varus.

Abstract

IT is appropriate that a symposium on controversies in children's foot problems should begin with metatarsus varus. In no area of children's foot problems is there less agreement. Even the definition has become clouded. The mechanism of the deformity is explained by a variety of conflicting theories and the etiology is ill-defined. Recommendations for management are based on supposed mechanisms and, therefore, vary widely also. In the first quarter of this century, orthopedic surgeons in France, Germany, and Italy began to write about a foot deformity that seemed to be distinct from clubfoot. By 1921 Bankart' in England took note of that work, realized that he and his colleagues had been seeing a similar deformity, and undertook to establish its identity in the English literature. Unlike true clubfoot, this entity had a normal or valgus heel. It had an adducted forefoot but lacked inversion of the sole. He termed this complex metatarsus varus.