Role of gastrocnemius release in treatment of equinus deformity in cerebral palsy

ABSTRACT

Equinus deformity is one the common deformities seen in Cerebral Plasy. Various methods have been used to correct the deformity but failed to give good result. Study done on 22 patients [total 40 limb] who had gastrocnemius release with or without an additional elongation of the Achilles tendon. There were seventeen patients with spastic diplegia, 4 patients with infantile hemiplegia and one patient with spastic quadriplegia. Twelve patients were females. Average age was 10 years and 7 months and the mean period of follow-up was 30 months. Elongation of Achilles tendon was done for 2 patients with spastic paraplegia and 4 with infantile hemiplegia. The result was 70% excellent, 20% good and 10% poor. Most of the excellent and good results were in younger age group. The aim of this paper is to describe this method which gave satisfactory results in correction of the spastic equinus deformity