Acquired Adult Flat Foot Deformity Systematic Review

Abstract

The goal of this systematic review was to to assess outcomes in individuals with AAFD (focusing on stage II). Three databases were searched for terms referring to the PTTD and AAFD up to and including 31 July 2018. Studies were eligible if they were published in English language and contained data on outcomes of stage II Management. Thirty-two eligible studies were included in this review. The sample size of the treatment trials ranged from 12 to 129 patients, with only two trials having more than 100 participants. The age ranges were wide. Pain, adverse effects, function or disability indices of foot, patients’ satisfaction, radiographic parameters, alignment and improvement of foot function, and quality of life were the searched outcomes. Due to clinical and methodological heterogeneity, data were not pooled into meta-analysis. The evidence from the selected studies is currently too limited about each procedure compared to its counterpart to draw definitive conclusions about the use of each intervention for AAFD. Future high quality comparative studies are warranted in this field. Only limited interventions commonly used in practice have been studied and there is much debate over the treatment of symptomatic and asymptomatic adult pes planus.

Keywords

• adult pes-planus
• flatfeet
• aafd
• pttd