Trends in hospitalization for paediatric flatfoot: an Italian nationwide study from 2001 to 2016.

BACKGROUND: Flatfoot is a common condition in young patients, but usually resolves by adolescence. This study aimed to estimate annual trend hospitalizations for flatfoot in Italian paediatric population from 2001 to 2016.

METHODS: Data of this study were collected from the National Hospital Discharge Reports (SDO) reported at the Italian Ministry of Health regarding the years of this paper (2001-2016). The yearly number of hospital admission for flatfoot, the percentage of males and females, the average age, the average days of hospitalization, primary diagnoses and primary procedures in the whole Italian population were calculated using descriptive statistical analyses.

RESULTS: 109,300 hospitalizations for flatfoot of young patients were performed during this period. 59.3% of patients were male and 40.7% female of the 10-14 years-old age class. The average days of hospitalization stay were 1.73 ± 1.27 days. The data highlights that the burden of flatfoot surgery is growing and affecting the healthcare system. The mean rate of hospital admissions in Italy for flatfoot in the young population was 82.14 for 100,000 inhabitants of the same age class.

CONCLUSIONS: The data highlights that the cases of flatfoot surgery increased from 2001 to 2016. The most common treatment was the "Internal Fixation Of Bone Without Fracture Reduction, Tarsals And Metatarsals followed by Subtalar Fusion and Arthroereisis. Further prospective studies on this topic may be conducted to improve the evidence of the results.