Pediatric forefoot pathology

Surgical management of the pediatric forefoot often brings challenges to the foot and ankle surgeon. It requires a thorough understanding of the pathologic abnormality and underlying causes involved, which include the contributing genetic conditions. Albeit most of the deformities carry a rare level of incidence, they do however have a significant level of psychological component and stress on the pediatric patient. The goals of managing those pathologic abnormalities are ultimately to improve function while achieving a cosmetically acceptable outcome. The common forefoot pathologic abnormalities in the pediatric population are reviewed with an added focus toward management of forefoot trauma.