In Memoriam: Ignacio Ponseti

Ignacio Ponseti, MD, a University of Iowa professor emeritus of orthopedics and developer of the Ponseti method for the treatment of clubfoot in children, died Oct. 18 at age 95.

In 1944, Ponseti joined the orthopedics faculty at University of Iowa (UI) Hospitals and Clinics, where he remained for the next four decades treating patients, teaching and conducting research, according to a press release. He retired as professor emeritus in 1984 but returned to the university in 1986 to a consultative practice in orthopedics. Ponseti was still working at the university just days before his death.

“Dr. Ponseti was a tireless leader with great passion for his field,” Jean Robillard, MD, vice president for medical affairs with UI Health Care, said in a press release. “His pioneering work in the treatment of clubfoot changed the lives of tens of thousands of children worldwide, and the training he provided other medical professionals ensures that future generations of children will also be helped.”

His namesake clubfoot treatment was widely accepted and used worldwide. However, Ponseti was also respected as a compassionate care provider for many orthopedic conditions, according to his colleagues.

“In his more than six-decade career, Dr. Ponseti was a role model for compassionate patient care but also for seeking a deeper understanding of the causes of deformities in children,” said Joseph Buckwalter, MD, professor and head of the department of orthopedics and rehabilitation and Arthur A. Steindler Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Iowa. “He had an inspiring passion for science and for using science to improve treatment of children.”

Ponseti also devoted his time and intellect to advance basic research behind deforming diseases such as scoliosis and hip dysplasia. He established the first connective tissue biochemistry lab dedicated to this effort.

Ponseti’s colleague at the University of Iowa, Jose Morcuende, MD, PhD, associate professor in the department of orthopedics, shared his thoughts about Ponseti’s lasting effect on his patients and the UI community.

“He was an extraordinary individual. His pioneering work in the treatment of clubfoot changed the lives of tens of thousands of children worldwide. When parents and their kids came to the clinic, within the first minute they fell in love with him because they saw his big heart,” Morcuende told O&P Business News, a sister publication of ORTHOSuperSite.com.

“We are looking forward. He had a dream, and that dream was that every child born with clubfoot will be treated without surgery. We are doing everything we can to continue our work in his name to accomplish that,” Morcuende said.