Footprint analysis in flatfoot assessment

BACKGROUND: A flatfoot is the most common condition in the practice of a pediatric orthopedist. A flatfoot is primarily diagnosed based on the assessment of the degree of the foot flattening. Along with clinical examination, footprint analysis is often used in practice due to the safety of this study and convenience and ease of implementation. AIM: This study aimed to determine how much footprints can correlate with the clinical assessment of flatfoot in children and which footprint indices are the most valuable in flatfoot assessment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included the survey results of 76 children aged 715 years of the St. Petersburg 49th school School of Health for 20212022. In this study, anthropometric data, clinical parameters (value of the heel valgus, arch angle, and Friedland index) and footprint indices and angles (Schwartz and Clarke angle, ChippauxSmirak index, Staheli index, Cavanagh and Rodgers index, and Irwin index) were analyzed. In the study, the average values were calculated, and correlation and regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: The footprint parameters did not have moderate and strong correlations with clinical parameters. Footprint parameters that assessed the area of the barefoot zone on the footprints (Irwin index and Cavanagh and Rodgers index) showed statistically significant moderate and strong correlations among plantographic parameters. Among linear and angular footprint parameters, the ChippauxSmirak index showed statistically significant moderate and strong correlations. CONCLUSIONS: The footprint criteria weakly correlated with the foot shape criteria in a clinical assessment, which does not allow us to interpolate the footprints data to the clinical evaluation data of the foot. The Cavanagh and Rodgers index, Irwin index, and ChippauxSmirak index had statistically significant moderate and strong correlations with other indices, which makes them more valuable in the assessment of feet according to the footprint analysis.