Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Chongqing Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, China.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Chongqing Orthopaedic Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China; Shanqi (Chongqing) Smart Medical Technology Co., Ltd., China.
Foot Ankle Surg. 2022 Apr;28(3):347-353. doi: 10.1016/j.fas.2021.04.005. Epub 2021 Apr 20.
The medial longitudinal arch (MLA) improves with age in childhood. However, it still causes parents to worry that children have flat feet. Due to the lack of a standard to quantitatively assess the arch development in kids at certain age, the pediatricians judge the flat feet by experience, causing many cases to be overtreated. The aim of this study was to plot the distribution of MLA parameters in children.
Children without lower limb deformity and lower limb pain were recruited from 12 primary schools and kindergartens in Chongqing province-level city. Foot length (FL) and navicular height (NH) was measured manually, arch index (AI) and arch volume (AV) were measured with the Foot Plantar Scanner. Each parameter was measured in both weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing positions. Significant differences were also compared between the measurements of consecutive years.
This study was the first to use a three-dimensional laser surface scanner to measure the MLA parameters of children aged 3-12 years in China. 1744 children (871 girls, 873 boys) participated in this study. FL, NH, AI and AV varied significantly with age in both the weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing positions. These parameters have significant differences between the weighted and non-weighted positions (p < 0.05).
The age distribution characteristics of these parameters indicated that the MLA improves with age. The establishment of a developmental scale for the children's MLA is necessary.
儿童的内侧纵弓（MLA）会随着年龄的增长而发育。然而，这仍然会让家长担心孩子有扁平足。由于缺乏定量评估特定年龄段儿童足弓发育的标准，儿科医生仅凭经验判断扁平足，导致许多病例被过度治疗。本研究旨在绘制儿童 MLA 参数的分布。
从重庆市的 12 所小学和幼儿园中招募没有下肢畸形和下肢疼痛的儿童。手动测量足长（FL）和距骨高度（NH），使用足底扫描仪测量足弓指数（AI）和足弓体积（AV）。每个参数均在负重和非负重位置进行测量。还比较了连续几年测量值之间的差异。
本研究首次使用三维激光表面扫描仪测量了中国 3-12 岁儿童的 MLA 参数。共有 1744 名儿童（871 名女孩，873 名男孩）参与了本研究。FL、NH、AI 和 AV 在负重和非负重位置均随年龄显著变化。这些参数在加权和非加权位置之间存在显著差异（p<0.05）。
这些参数的年龄分布特征表明 MLA 随年龄增长而发育。有必要为儿童 MLA 建立一个发育尺度。
