Congenital, means what?

Metatarsus adducuts is a congenital deformity. However, it is not a clear and well-understood concept. What does „congenital” mean?

’Congenital’ means that at the moment of birth the deformity is already fully present and easily observable. It also means that the defect arose in the fetal period and is not the result of human intervention at the moment of birth or immediately after it.

Whether the defect is congenital or not is determined by the time it occurs. It is located at a certain stage of fetal development. Since no structural changes in soft tissues have been observed in the MTA deformity, this defect is classified as a developmental deformity. For a long time in fetal life, the foot develops completely correctly, so it is a fully developed and correct foot. However, at a certain point, the force acting on it, e.g. pressure from the uterus or the presence of a second child (in the case of twins) causes it to be in an adducted position.

Since the causes of MTA are not fully known, it is difficult to clearly determine at what stage of pregnancy the defect occurs and what problem we are actually dealing with: whether it is just a matter of intrauterine compression or some anomaly in muscle attachment, which is not so advanced that it cannot be treated.

Photos and graphics (in order on the page):
1. Photo by Juan Encalada on Unsplash