Analysis of data from the registry of children with idiopathic congenital clubfoot in Saint Petersburg from 2020 to 2024

BACKGROUND: Despite many years of treatment experience and continuing research interest in approaches to the management of patients with congenital equinocavovarus foot deformity, this condition remains a relevant problem in pediatric orthopedics. Currently, there is no monitoring of children with congenital clubfoot in the Russian Federation. However, the functionality of the Medical Information and Analytical Center of Saint Petersburg allows obtaining data and analyzing anonymized medical records of patients with congenital clubfoot who received treatment in state medical organizations of the city. AIM: This work aimed to assess the incidence of congenital clubfoot in children of Saint Petersburg and to analyze the completeness of the registry data of pediatric patients with congenital clubfoot (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision code Q66.0) who received treatment in medical organizations of Saint Petersburg during 2020–2024. METHODS: The frequency of congenital clubfoot in the pediatric population of Saint Petersburg was assessed using birth data from the statistical bulletin of the Federal State Statistics Service Administration for Saint Petersburg. Based on the disease registries of the Medical Information and Analytical Center, Saint Petersburg, a separate subgroup of pediatric patients was identified and created. The inclusion criterion was the presence of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision code Q66.0 in the medical records of outpatient and inpatient municipal and federal medical institutions of Saint Petersburg. RESULTS: During 2020–2024, among 254,581 newborns in Saint Petersburg, 229 were born with idiopathic congenital clubfoot; the proportion of patients unjustifiably included in the registry remarkably decreased from 40.6% in 2020 to 10.6% in 2024. The incidence rate during this period was 0.900 (95% CI 0.790–1.024). In the medical records related to conservative treatment of children with congenital clubfoot, the treatment stages were documented most completely, whereas information on the severity of foot deformity was provided in a smaller percentage of cases. Information on recurrence of foot deformity during therapy was the least complete; in most observations, it was impossible to determine precisely the time at which the recurrent deformity was recorded and the subsequent treatment strategy. CONCLUSION: The study revealed epidemiological indicators of congenital clubfoot prevalence in the pediatric population that are comparable with worldwide data, which indicates high coverage of pediatric patients with this congenital condition in the registry. Implementation of the study recommendations, as well as development of appropriate electronic tools for documentation of information, including registries, will undoubtedly contribute to improvement of the quality of and control over medical care provided to children with congenital clubfoot.