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What Are the Causes of Clubfoot?

A baby can be born with a clubfoot or with clubfeet. This birth defect does not cause pain to the infant, initially, but can result in a host of medical problems later in life if not corrected. The medical community has been attempting to discover the cause of clubfoot for more than 100 years. There are many theories but no definitive answer as to why a child is born with a clubfoot.

  1. Congenital Talipes Equinovarus

    • The medical name for a clubfoot is congenital talipes equinovarus, according to Clubfeet.net. Boys are afflicted with this condition more frequently than girls are. Clubfoot is considered a genetic condition. If one parent has a clubfoot, chances are good that this condition will be passed on to his child.

    Twisted Foot

    • For years the medical community thought that a clubfoot was caused by the fetus' foot being twisted or malpositioned while in the uterus. However, it is now believed that environmental and genetic factors may result in this birth defect.

    Abnormalities in Muscles

    • Infants who have a clubfoot have been found to to possess histochemical abnormalities in the peroneal and posteromedical muscle groups. Scientists believe that this may be the outcome of changes to the intrauterine life due to a stroke or some other kind of neurological event, which leads to paraparesis (slight paralysis) or mild hemiparesis in the fetus.

    Environmental Factors

    • The March of Dimes reports that environmental factors, in addition to genetics, can put an infant at risk of developing clubfoot. Those factors include a pregnant woman's use of drugs, infection, smoking or other negative exposures to the fetus while in utero. The March of Dimes also notes that a child born with a clubfoot or clubfeet usually doesn't have any other birth defect; however, a clubfoot (or feet) can be the outcome if a child is born with spina bifida. This happens because there are damaged nerves in the open spine, which has a negative impact on the legs and feet.

    New Findings

    • Research into the cause of a clubfoot has recently been done by a children's medical charity called Sparks. One study showed that an unusual variant that processes folate in the body showed up in the systems of children who have clubfeet. This study was led by clinical geneticist Zosia Miedzybrodzka and epidemiologist Linda Sharp.

    Smoking

    • Women who come from families where clubfoot is prevalent are especially encouraged not to smoke during pregnancy because their risk of having a child with this birth defect is 20 times as great if they continue smoking while pregnant, according to the March of Dimes.

    Other Considerations

    • The Journal of Children's Orthopaedics (see Resources) notes that some researchers believe that a clubfoot is the result of muscle abnormalities, vascular or joint lesions, malformed bones or abnormal tendons and ligaments. Another school of thought, which the journal points out, is that clubfoot is the result of the foot resting in a peculiar and twisted fashion while gestation occurs, as noted in Section 2.

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