[Ultrastructural investigation on muscles of patients with talipes equinovarus (author's transl)].

: Authors in course of soft tissue release of children with talipes equinovarus between the age of 9 months and 4 years performed a muscle biopsy in 23 cases from the so called club foot muscles and from the peronei. The results of electronmicroscopic investigation are described. The muscle is not as a hole affected, but the pathologic parts are scattered among the intact ones. Fatty degeneration was noted after long termed redression in plaster, together with the fat connective tissue also appeared. The most severe alterations were observed on the contractile elements, consistent seemingly with neuromuscular atrophy. The posterior tibial muscle and the peronei revealed the most obvious alterations. With rising age there was no deterioration of the picture. On basis of their results it is suggested, that for children starting to walk all kind of treatment involving immobilisation should be abandoned, and after operation a functional treatment with eventual electrotherapy introduced. This is in their opinion only realizable in frame of organized care.