Shriners Children’s Rhizotomy Research Wins International Award

Shriners Children’s researchers won a top international award for their extensive, multi-year study, exploring the impacts of a selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) procedure in young adults.

Mark McMulkin, Shriners Children’s Spokane motion analysis center director, along with other team members in Spokane, Shriners Children’s Salt Lake City and Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare earned the honor at the European Society for Movement Analysis in Adults and Children 2022 (ESMAC) conference in Dublin, Ireland. It is an annual international conference attended by professionals working in the area of motion analysis.

McMulkin fronted presentations for research on the outcomes of rhizotomies for persons with cerebral palsy in young adulthood, as well as methods in which to decide surgery on hamstrings in children living with cerebral palsy.

The rhizotomy presentation won second Best Paper out of 100 presentations.

• Best Paper Award –  Second Place, European Society for Movement Analysis in Adults and Children 2022 (McMulkin ML, MacWilliams BA, Duffy EA, Munger ME, Chen PJC, Novacheck T, Carter LH, Mader SL, Hayes B, Schwartz MH. Outcomes of intensive versus minimal spasticity management for individuals with cerebral palsy: gait outcomes for a long-term multi-center study. Gait and Posture, 97 (Supplement 1), S116-S117.)

The hamstrings presentation, including team members from Shriners Children's Spokane, Shriners Children's Greenville and Shriners Children's Salt Lake City, took home the top award for Best Poster.

• Best Poster Award – First Place, European Society for Movement Analysis in Adults and Children 2022. (McMulkin ML, MacWilliams BA, Westberry D, Hyer L, Sousa T, Carroll K, Stotts A, Saraswat P. Use of hamstring muscle-tendon length modeling to guide surgical intervention. Gait and Posture, 97 (Supplement 1), S118-S119.)

Shriners Children's provides individualized specialty care for children with all types of cerebral palsy.

In 2020, Shriners Children’s treated more than 6,700 children living with cerebral palsy, and U.S. News & World Report ranked six of our locations among the "best children’s hospitals for orthopedics" in the United States.