Iowa doctor who developed nonsurgical treatment for clubfoot, practiced it for decades dies

Iowa doctor who perfected clubfoot treatment dies

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A University of Iowa doctor who perfected a nonsurgical treatment for curing clubfoot in infants has died.

University of Iowa spokesman Tom Moore says Dr. Ignacio V. Ponseti died Sunday at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City following complications from a stroke. Ponseti was 95.

Clubfoot is a congenital defect in which a baby’s foot is turned downward or sideways. Ponseti developed his method in the mid-1940s and practiced it for decades before the medical community came to acknowledge it was frequently effective.

Ponseti’s method included stretching ligaments, joints and tendons in the foot, followed by application of a plaster cast. The bones, all cartilage in an infant, are aligned, then the leg is put in a splint.