Study Status: Recruiting
Recruit Status: Recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Official Title: The CurePPaC Study - Analysing Non-surgical Treatment Strategies to Cure Pes Planovalgus Associated Complaints
Brief Summary: Pes planovalgus, also called flat foot, is a common foot deformity characterized by a flattening of the foot's longitudinal arch and is accompanied by a dysfunction of the posterior tibial tendon ("posterior tibial tendon dysfunction" or "PTTD"). Early stages of this pathology are thought to be treated with non-surgical therapy options like foot orthoses (relief of tendon stress by mechanical unloading of the arch), strengthening exercises or basic physiotherapeutic measures. Recent literature clearly states the urgent need for high quality studies to evaluate the proposed non-surgical treatments (Bowring 2009, 2010). There is only one high quality study available that shows benefits of orthoses therapy and exercise (Kulig 2009). No study to date evaluated functional changes pre-post in dynamic movement pattern like gait or stair climbing. The widespread use of several non-surgical treatment strategies lead to extensive financial expenses of the health care system. An optimized therapeutic strategy could eventually lead to more efficient health care investments. The presented proposal addresses this latest knowledge and aims to analyse non-surgical treatment strategies to Cure Pes Planovalgus associated Complaints (CurePPaC) in the CurePPaC Study.