Despite having the word “tooth” in its name, Charcot Marie Tooth disease is a foot condition that results in a moderate to severe deformity of the feet. It’s categorized by a high arch and a heel that turns inward, leading to an abnormal foot shape. This can lead to a number of different issues for the patient, from inhibited gait to repeated falls, and treating the condition is challenging. Below, we take a closer look at the challenges of treating Charcot Marie Tooth disease.
Treating CMT
A recent study titled “Surgical outcomes of cavovarus foot deformity in children with Charcot Marie Tooth disease” examined some of the benefits and drawbacks of treating CMT using different techniques. For patients with mild or moderate cases of Charcot Marie Tooth disease, non-surgical options were often the preferred route. The most common conservative treatments are custom orthotics that accommodate the deformity and help reduce pain, and physiotherapy to help strengthen structures in the area. These treatments tend to make the condition less impactful on the patient, but it depends on the severity of the condition.
The main focus of the study was on how surgery affected children with CMT. For other conditions, surgery often produces great results, but researchers found that the children did not experience positive results in all tracked categories when it came to surgery for Charcot Marie Tooth disease. 21 children with CMT underwent surgery to correct their condition, the average age at surgery was 12.5 years old, and all children were re-evaluated more than a year following surgery. Their results were then compared to a collection of 206 children with CMT who did not undergo surgery.
The good – On a positive note, researchers found that children who had surgery to address their CMT showed improved foot alignment, increased ankle flexibility, a more normalized gait and a significant reduction in self-reported daily falls compared to children who did not undergo surgery.
The bad – However, researchers noted that some important outcomes did not improve following surgery. Foot strength, foot function and overall quality of life scores were not significantly different when compared to the control group.
“Our findings show that a combination of bony and soft tissue surgery improves foot alignment, ankle flexibility, self-reported trips/falls, and plantar pressure loading in this population. However, surgery had no effect on strength, function, or quality of life, which generally mirrored the natural course of the disease,” the researchers wrote. “Future studies using self-reported pain severity measures and radiographic data on a large sample of participants are required to fully understand the impact of surgery on patient outcomes.”
So while some measurements improved, the most important ones did not. Hopefully we continue to learn better ways to treat this condition so we can best treat kids saddled with this disease.