Development of a Customised Novel Model for Surgical Planning in Paediatric Flat Foot Corrective Surgery

儿童经常患有“平足”，这是一种与足弓扁平和严重的足关节对齐有关的疾病。平足的真实发生率尚不清楚，但根据几项研究，50%的儿童最初有平足，在生长过程中通过发育正常的足弓来自我纠正，最终10%的青少年仍然有这种情况。治疗方法取决于扁平足的类型。当患者感到疼痛时，建议进行手术，以防止成年后的残疾和关节炎。然而，手术本身也带来了挑战。鉴于扁平足的复杂结构和对足部生物力学的不完全了解，对于如何成功地治疗扁平足尚无统一的共识，也没有建立最佳的手术方法。今天的手术计划仍然依赖于足外科医生根据经验进行有根据的猜测，因此对于个别患者的最佳手术方案存在很大分歧。本研究项目旨在开发一个参数模型，以提高我们对扁平足手术的理解。该项目包括足部扫描、参数建模、组织评估、几何分析和手术前后地板上的压力测绘。成功的手术极大地提高了患者的生活质量。另一方面，不成功的手术会带来问题，可能会导致诉讼和昂贵的手术后护理；因此，这种新的手术规划“工具”将防止失败，失败是痛苦的、尴尬的和昂贵的！

Children often suffer from 'Flatfoot' a condition associated with foot arch flattening and extreme foot joints malalignment. True incidence of flatfoot is unknown, but according to several studies 50% of children have flatfoot initially which while growing corrects itself by developing a normal foot arch, ending with 10% of adolescents still having the condition. Treatment depends on the type of flatfoot. Surgery is recommended when patients experience pain, to prevent disability and arthritis in adulthood. However, surgery brings its own challenges. Given the complex structure and the not fully understood foot biomechanics, there is no universal agreement on how to treat flatfoot successfully and no optimal surgical methodology has yet been established. Surgical planning still today relies on educated guessing by the foot surgeon based on experience, therefore there is a lot of disagreement about optimal surgery for individual patients. This research project aims to develop a parametric model to improve our understanding of flatfoot surgery. The project entails foot scans, parametric modelling, tissue assessment, geometrical analysis and pressure mapping on the floor both pre- and post-surgery. Successful surgery greatly improves the quality of life of the patients. On the other hand, unsuccessful surgery raises questions and may lead to litigation and expensive after surgery care; so this new surgical planning 'tool' will safeguard against failures, failures being painful, embarrassing and costly!