[More than 10 years of follow up of the stop screw technique]

Introduction: Infantile flexible flatfoot does not require treatment in most cases. Symptomatic flexible flat feet are treated orthopaedically and surgery is only indicated when orthosis fails.

Material and methods: Cases who underwent surgical treatment with the stop screw technique at the 12 de Octubre Hospital between 1995 and 2002 are reported. Patient progress is also analysed. Six angles are measured on the x-ray prior to surgery and those same x-ray angles are measured again before material extraction. They are then compared to see if the correction achieved is statistically significant. A more reduced sample is currently being assessed with the same radiological measurements and two clinical assessment scales: Lickert, and Smith and Millar. The latest x-rays are analysed by two radiologists to determine if there is subtalar arthrosis.

Results: In the short term, statistically significant differences are observed in all angles. The comparison between the post-surgery angles and the current angles does not show differences, except for the Giannestras angle, which has statistically significantly worsened. Clinical results and patient satisfaction is good. Incipient subtalar arthrosis is present in 68.5% of current patient x-rays.

Conclusions: Stop screw method is a cheap, simple and effective technique to correct symptomatic flexible flatfoot that has not improved with conservative treatment. This technique provides short-term foot correction which can be maintained over time.