Congenital Clubfoot: Difficulties in Maintaining the Use of the Dennis-Brown Orthosis by Caregivers

TL;DR

This study explores why caregivers struggle to keep using a specific orthosis for children with congenital clubfoot, finding that child irritation is a major issue.

Contribution

The study identifies caregiver challenges in using the Dennis-Brown orthosis, highlighting child irritation as a key barrier to adherence.

Findings

41.7% of caregivers reported difficulties with orthosis use.

Child irritation was the main issue, reported by 93.3% of those facing difficulties.

Difficulties were unrelated to the child's age, gender, or affected side.

Abstract

Objective
This study aimed to identify the main difficulties faced by the family when a child with congenital clubfoot (CC) uses the Dennis-Brown orthosis.

Method
 This study interviewed via Google Forms caregivers of children treated from 2015 to 2018 regarding their difficulties in orthosis use.

Results
 The answers revealed that orthosis-related difficulties are independent of the child's gender, age, or affected side. We noted that 41.7% of the respondents reported some difficulty, especially the child's irritation when using the orthosis (93.3%).

Conclusion
 The main factor in CC relapses is poor adherence to orthosis use. As a result, studying factors causing or increasing the probability of interrupting orthosis use is significant in creating strategies to facilitate their use, potentially reducing CC recurrence.

Objetivo I
dentificar as principais dificuldades apresentadas pela família durante o uso da órtese de Dennis-Brown.

Método
 Esse estudo foi realizado com os responsáveis por pacientes tratados no período de 2015–2018, os quais responderam a um formulário com perguntas sobre a criança por google forms quanto às dificuldades no uso da órtese.

Resultado
 Com as respostas obtidas, identificamos que as dificuldades com a órtese independem do sexo, idade ou lado afetado na criança. Foi possível identificar que 41,7% dos pacientes que fizeram o uso da órtese apresentaram algum tipo de dificuldade, sendo a principal dificuldade a irritação da criança (93,3%).

Conclusão
 Sabendo que o principal fator de recidivas do PTC é a má aderência ao uso das órteses, o estudo de fatores que causam ou aumentam a probabilidade da interrupção do seu uso se torna um importante aliado para a criação de estratégias para facilitar o uso da órtese, assim possivelmente diminuindo a recidiva da doença.

Figures