Guest Editorial: Mini-symposium: Understanding the Flatfoot Deformity

Rajiv Shah¹, Sharad Prabhakar²

¹Department of Foot and Ankle, Orthopedics, Sunshine Global Hospitals, Vadodara, Gujarat, India
²Department of Orthopedics, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India

Corresponding Author: Sharad Prabhakar, Department of Orthopedics, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, Phone: +91 9781716119, e-mail: sharad.ortho@gmail.com

How to cite this article Shah R, Prabhakar S. Guest Editorial: Mini-symposium: Understanding the Flatfoot Deformity. J Foot Ankle Surg (Asia Pacific) 2021;8(2):41.

Source of support: Nil

Conflict of interest: None

Rajiv Shah

Sharad Prabhakar

The changing format of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery (Asia Pacific) now includes mini-symposia on specific issues, and flatfoot deformity is one such problem of the foot that is not really understood in Asia by many orthopedic surgeons. Although a very common problem in the West (60 million Americans or 25% of the US population), little data are available for the Asian subcontinent. To shed light on this issue, and to clarify some crucial points, the Journal decided to invite a group of specialists from Thailand Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society the region to give inputs on this topic, thus leading to the current symposium.

A well-written descriptive review by Arthithat Kirinpanu from Thailand regarding the role of arthrodesis in adult-acquired flatfoot sets the tone for the symposium. Another excellent review by Pisit Boonma and Chamnanni Rungprai, also from Thailand discusses in detail the controversies in the management of Stage II flatfoot. Complementing the same, Thanut Valleenukul and Pongpol Petchkum, also from Thailand in their detailed descriptive review focus on the common failures and management strategies for complications associated with the procedures performed for the treatment of flatfoot deformity including how these can be prevented and addressed. Chamnanni Rungprai and Parinya Maneeprasopchoke in their article on a clinical approach to a flatfoot, focus on etiologies, pathophysiology, and clinical examination necessary to diagnose and treat a flatfoot deformity.

Further adding to the symposium, the article by Yeok Pin Chua, Wei Jing Tan, and Aik Saw is a study conducted on 400 Malaysian women, which revealed that nearly half of them had some manner of foot deformity with a significant association with high heel footwear.

In addition to the mini-symposium, articles on Syme’s amputation and Boksh et al.’s from the UK on stress fractures in the coronavirus disease (COVID) era add to the wealth of information in this issue.

The editors hope that you enjoy the current symposium and new look of the journal; we look forward to your feedback to improve the quality of subsequent issues, as we plan many such focused symposia.

________________________
© The Author(s). 2021 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and non-commercial reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.