Re: Experiences with ATTT (Tendon Transfer Surgery)

[Guest guest]

Hi Chip,

's daughter, Emma had the ATTT in September, you can email her at:

erinkratochvil@....

[Guest guest]

Hi!

Our daughter Emma had the ATTT September 14th of this year. She has

had a rough time with her correction because her feet were so

severe. When we went home for a vacation this summer, (I'm from

Iowa and currently live in Florida) we took Emma to see Dr Ponseti.

He casted her twice and recommended the ATTT as soon as the last

cast was removed, which would be when we got back to Florida. There

was a 2 week period between the last cast and the transfer, as her

skin was already tender from the castings. The surgery didn't take

long and we went right home after it was done. She was casted after

the surgery and was standing/putting weight on her cast by the

evening and was walking on the cast the next day. She only had a

few doses of her pain med, so her recovery was quite easy. She wore

the cast for 3 weeks, and when it came off she went right into her

Markell straightlast shoes during the day and the DBB at night. It

didn't even bother her feet to have the shoes on right away. I

don't know if everyone has had a good experience with this or if our

case is the exception to the rule, but it went very smoothly and

Emma did great! It's been 2 months since the cast from the transfer

came off, and we have a follow up appt after the first of the year.

Her foot that had the transfer is still kind of wobbley when she

walks, actually both her feet are. I think that as she gets older

she just needs to " teach " her feet to be flat, since she doesn't

have that much weight on them to keep them that way when she walks.

She is only about 25 lbs. When we manipulate and stretch her feet,

they both easily go to the correct position. Her right foot is not

tight like it used to be before the transfer. I will post again

after our appt on the 10th and let you know what our doctor has to

say about her progress.

If you have anymore questions, please feel free to email me, my

email is erinkratochvil@....

I hope I've helped!

>

> All,

>

> A colleague of ours has a 3 1/2 year old girl born with a single,

> left clubfoot and treated, since birth, by a non-Ponseti doctor.

> Recently her foot has relapsed and she has been recommended for

ATTT

> (tibialis anterior tendon transfer) surgery.

>

> [Note: This is not the achilles tendon " tenotomy " surgery commonly

> done on infants with clubfeet. This surgery moves a tendon

located

> on the top of the foot.]

>

> We are looking for information from parents of children who have

had

> this ATTT surgery. Specifically, our questions are:

>

> 1) Was the child's foot casted before/after the surgery?

> 2) How successful was the surgery in correcting the relapse?

> 3) Was the recovery painful for the child?

> 4) Were there any negative long-term effects of the surgery?

> 5) Plus any other information from your experiences...

>

> Many thanks to those who reply.

>

> Chip Zaenglein

[Guest guest]

If I can be of any help my son had it four years ago at the age of 25 months.

s.

Re: Experiences with ATTT (Tendon Transfer

Surgery)

Hi Chip,

's daughter, Emma had the ATTT in September, you can email her at:

erinkratochvil@....

[Guest guest]

Hi Chip,

I've responded to each of your questions below. Our daughter had the ATTT

done Nov 12, 2004 in Iowa. Her feet had been in a relapsed position for well

over a year so her left foot, which was the worse of the two, has some

residual deformity which Drs. Ponseti and Morcuende feel is cosmetic only.

1) Was the child's foot casted before/after the surgery?

No casting prior to surgery.

2) How successful was the surgery in correcting the relapse?

Right foot 100% corrected, left foot about 90%

3) Was the recovery painful for the child?

Yes, for the first two days but she was a worst case scenario. Most children

we've heard about did much better.

4) Were there any negative long-term effects of the surgery?

No

5) Plus any other information from your experiences...

Post surgery casts were left on for 6 weeks. Our daughter experienced pain

once she started walking alot. We were warned of this and this phase passed

fairly quickly. Our daughter may require another small procedure to transfer

the small tendon attached under the big toe. Right now she has a more

pronounced arch under the left foot.

Dan