Quality of life in flexible painful flatfoot treated by anterograde calcaneo-stop procedure: The patient's and family's perspective.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the quality of life and satisfaction about the surgical treatment in patients with symptomatic flexible flatfoot. METHODS: The Oxford Ankle Foot Questionnaire for children (one to fill in before the surgical correction and another 6-12 months after the screw's removal), the PedsQLTM Healthcare Satisfaction Generic Module and the PedsQLTM General Well-Being Scale were administered to all patients who underwent the anterograde calcaneo-stop procedure for flexible painful flatfoot between January 2012 and December 2015. RESULTS: One hundred forty patients were sent the questionnaires and 74 (40 male and 34 female) of them responded. The surgical correction was performed at a medium age of 11,84±1,65 years. When the Oxford Ankle Foot Questionnaire for children scores before surgical correction and after the screw removal were compared, the latter scored significantly higher for all domains. Healthcare satisfaction was good in all families. Most of the patients scored medium-high on the PedQLTM General Well-Being both when asked about themselves (mean 86,50±7,44) and in general about their health (76,06±12,32). CONCLUSION: Our results confirmed that flexible painful flatfoot is significantly affecting the quality of life of children and that the anterograde calcaneo-stop procedure is a valuable technique, which improves their quality of life and the family wellbeing.

Tailored physiotherapeutic intervention study for musculoskeletal disorders among video display terminal users.

BACKGROUND: Musculoskeletal disorders represent one of the most common complains among video display terminal (VDT) users and are responsible for an important burden of disease in white collars. METHODS: From May 2017 to March 2018, 69 VDT users working at Trieste hospitals were recruited for a training session aimed to reduce musculoskeletal disorders in white collars workers. Thirty-three were assigned to the intervention group, whereas 36 comprised the control group. The intervention group received three personalized 1-hour-one-to-one sessions with a physiotherapist and a thorough evaluation of their workstation. Data were collected at baseline (T0), at 2 months (T1) and at 6 months (T2) using a standardized questionnaire and analyzed with the software STATA. RESULTS: Overall pain significantly decreased in cases at T1 and T2 (p < 0.05). Headache significantly decreased in cases at T1 (p < 0.05). Body awareness significantly increased in cases both at T1 and T2 (p < 0.05). Headache was positively correlated with an increased perception of pain (Coef 6.85, CI95% 3.2-10.5; p < 0.001), while the intervention determined a significant reduction of overall pain during the follow up (OR 0.97, IC 0.95-0.99, p = 0.013). Cases showed a significant increase of the cranial-vertebral angle at the 6 months follow up (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: A tailored physiotherapeutic intervention has showed a statistically significant decrease in osteoarticular pain and an increased body awareness in VDT users undergoing a personalized training session.v.