I recently traveled to Philadelphia for the annual meeting of the Pediatric Hand Study Group (PHSG). This group is composed of hand surgeon and therapists who are committed to caring for kids born with hand differences. The meeting was excellent as usual and the hosts included the surgeons from Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and the Shriners Hospital of Philadelphia. There were numerous excellent presentations on varied topics with some meeting focus on arthrogryposis. Lindley Wall and I presented on our research on humerus osteotomy in arthrogryposis, Steindler flexorplasty in arthrogryposis, and Mobius Syndrome.
We were also honored to received the 2017 Paul R. Manske Award for the Best Congenital Research Manuscript from 2016. The manuscript was our report on a classification for the uncommon diagnosis, synpolydactyly of the hand. It was a multicenter effort including St Louis (Wall, Calfee, and myself), Boston (Bae), and Dallas (Oishi). I believe this manuscript gives researchers more information to allow discussion of these rare cases and the classification should improve treatment planning. We are grateful for the honor!
