Role of parental consanguinity in development of congenital talipes equinovarus

Introduction: Congenital clubfoot is one of the most common congenital anomalies encountered in orthopaedics. Its etiology has been proposed to be multifactorial. We studied the association of various factors, with special reference to consanguinity between parents as the possible etiological factor in the development of this condition. Materials and methods: 78 children with congenital talipes equinovarus were included in our study, and a detailed history was taken, with emphasis on parental consanguinity, and an examination was done to assess the idiopathic, or non-idiopathic nature of clubfoot. Results: Idiopathic CTEV was the most common type diagnosed. Of the 78 children with CTEV, 21 (27%) were born out of consanguineous marriages. Only 1 out of those 21 children had a non-idiopathic CTEV. Conclusions: There is a high incidence of parental consanguinity among parents in the children diagnosed with congenital clubfoot, in our region. However, parental consanguinity was not associated with increasing severity of clubfoot. More studies, and possibly genetic testing, however, are needed to clarify the association of disease severity with parental consanguinity.