BOW LEGS. (Genu Varum).—This is the opposite of knock knees, and the deformity usually affects both limbs, the knees being widely separated. The disease begins in early childhood; the cause is rickets, and the deformity is the direct result of the weight of the body and muscular action.
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Treatment.—Spontaneous recovery occurs; but if the case is at all severe, and the child is young enough that the bones have not become firmly set in the abnormal curves, mechanical treatment should be employed to bring the limbs to a better position. This may be done by plaster of paris or braces. This must be used intelligently and continuously. Children should not be allowed to walk so early, especially those of slow development.
CLUB FOOT (Talipes).—Varieties:
1. The heel may be drawn up and the foot extended (Talipes Equinus).
2. The foot may be flexed, bent up, (Talipes Calcaneus).
3. The foot may be drawn inward, adducted, (Talipes Varus).
4. The foot may be drawn outward, abducted, (Talipes Valgus); or, two may be combined, extended, and drawn inward (Equino Varus).
In the congenital (born with it) variety the displacement is almost always one of adduction, that is, drawn inward, with commonly some elevation of the heel. It generally affects both feet, but it may be confined to one and if only one is affected, the right is oftener affected than the left. The deformity varies. At the time of birth and for some months afterwards the deformity can usually be corrected by proper manipulation, but later, if left to itself, it becomes in greater or less measure fixed, because of the muscular contraction, and developed changes in the shape of the bones.
Cause—It is not known.