Research
At Shriners Hospitals for Children, medical research is having a strong, positive impact on the care — and cure — of children with orthopaedic disabilities and burn injuries. What began as a token $12,000 allocation in the 1960s has grown into a multimillion-dollar international research program for the Shriners Hospitals system, with $24 million budgeted for research in 2002.
In 2002, Shriners Hospitals is supporting approximately 100 individual research projects. Vitally important to Shriners Hospitals' mission is the clinical application of research which has been responsible for many major developments made in the orthopaedic and burn care fields.
Researchers at the St. Louis and Canada Shriners Hospitals are achieving significant results in the diagnosis and management of children with metabolic bone disease. The genetics unit at Montreal has pioneered a treatment protocol based on vitamin D and large phosphate supplements to treat familial hypophosphatemia, the most prevalent inherited form of rickets. Effective application of this knowledge corrects the lower limb deformity and enables normal growth in many children, thus eliminating the need for corrective surgery.
Investigators at St. Louis have confirmed that this malady is linked to the X chromosome and that girls respond better to treatment than do boys. In addition, St. Louis researchers have shown that untreated adults with X-linked hypophosphatemia develop three important complications, namely dental abscesses, painful pseudo-fractures (active osteomalacia) in the bones of the lower extremities and osteoarthritis, especially of the knees.
Researchers at the Portland Shriners Hospital have demonstrated that a mutation in the gene for making fibrillin (a component of connective tissue that holds together skin, muscles and organs) is responsible for Marfan syndrome, a potentially fatal inherited disorder, resulting in severe skeletal deformities, dislocated lenses of the eye and life-threatening cardiovascular complications. Some believe that defective fibrillin synthesis may be involved in the development of idiopathic scoliosis.
With this new knowledge, it is now possible to accurately diagnose Marfan syndrome (even in unborn fetuses) before the symptoms actually appear.
Other projects under study by Shrine researchers include: (1) working on biological markers to assess the extent and severity of osteoarthritis, perhaps before it becomes clinically evident; (2) using growth hormone to speed up the rate of wound healing and donor site regeneration in burned children; (3) improving flexor tendon repair in children to maximize hand and finger motion recovery; (4) investigating how to minimize the significant sleep deprivation and associated alteration in metabolic rate that occurs in severely burn injured children; and (5) testing functional neuromuscular stimulation to enable children with spinal cord injuries to perform many tasks independently for the first time.
The Research Advisory Board, a group of 14 eminent non-Shrine scientists, annually reviews all research projects undertaken by the orthopaedic and burn hospitals for scientific merit and clinical usefulness. Their recommendations are presented to the Research Committee and to the Boards of Directors and Trustees of Shriners Hospitals for allocation of appropriate financial support for the following year.
In addition to conducting research, Shriners Hospitals also maintains a research fellowship program, which currently has 12 fellows serving a minimum of two-year terms at six Shriners Hospitals. The program's purpose is to attract quality doctors to service with Shriners Hospitals, increase medical awareness and understanding of orthopaedic and burn injury problems in children, and improve the capabilities of medical and surgical professionals for dealing with these problems.
As with any research, solutions to today's medical problems are not discovered in a day, a week or even a year. This important work takes time. Shriners Hospitals are committed to the sustained investment in clinically useful research so that fundamental knowledge can be acquired that will improve the quality of life of children with orthopaedic problems and burn injuries.
If you know of a
child Shriners Hospitals might be able to help,
please call our toll-free patient referral line:
In the U.S.: 1-800-237-5055.
In Canada: 1-800-361-7256.
