The management of deformities of the foot in children with spina bifida.

A simple photographic technique is described which measures the weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing areas of the feet in the standing child. The child stands on a rectangular sheet of thick glass which is set into the floor. Beneath the floor is a cellar, from which the soles of the feet may be observed and photographed. A transparent grid placed over the photographic print enables the weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing areas of the foot to be measured, and thus to express the weight-bearing areas as a percentage of the total area of the sole of the foot. The procedure was used to assess 55 spina-bifida children who had had surgical correction of deformities of the feet. The findings are discussed.