Annotations on the etiology and treatment of tibia vara.

Tibia vara was first reported by Erlacher (1922) and later fully described by Blount (1937), after whom the disorder is usually named. Only about 150 cases in all have been reported in the literature. The disease is therefore relatively uncommon and it seems to have a geographic distribution. occurring chiefly in and around the Caribbean. The condition consists essentially in the development in a child of progressive varus and medial torsion of the tibia. Blount described two principal groups of patients: the infantile variety in which the deformity becomes manifest in the first three years of life, and the adolescent variety in which it first becomes obvious at about the age of eight years. The infantile variety is the more common, the more severe and the more certainly progressive form of the disorder. Usually both legs are affected, but the condition may be unilateral.