From the Ponseti Method to the French Method: Research of a Consensus

Abstract

The Ponseti and the French functional physical therapy method can successfully manage patients with clubfoot deformity, and, despite their differences, both protocols share the same basic goals and aim to achieve a pain-free supple plantigrade foot with as little surgery as practicably possible and to decrease the risk of relapse. In particular, both methods have significantly reduced the need for large incisions. Rather than comparing the method of Ponseti and the French functional physical therapy method, the time has come to reconcile the differences between the two methods in order to merge the advantages of both and apply them in the same strategy. There are much more convergences than divergences between both methods. In particular, physiotherapy can integrate the initial protocol from Ponseti. The conservative treatment of tomorrow is probably halfway between the method of Ponseti and the French functional physical therapy method (hybrid method), and from this point, one can expect to improve results by introducing changes in the original method.