Congenital talipes equinovarus (ctev) occurs in approximately 1.2 per thousand live births in the UK. The prevalence is less in Orientals (0.6 per thousand), and higher in Hawaiians (6.8 per thousand) and in East Africans. The aetiology is still obscure, but Ruth Wynne-Davies' view has yet to be challenged, that there is a genetic component with an environmental trigger. There is no recognisable pattern of inheritance, but if one child in a family is affected, the risk that a second will have ctev is 1 in 35.