Research - Awards

Three SBUMC Researchers Receive Award for Hand and Shoulder Disorder Treatments

The quality of life can be seriously impacted for those who suffer from conditions that limit or freeze the movement of their hands and shoulders. However, researchers at Stony Brook University Medical Center have made great strides in addressing these disorders, and have received important recognition.

The 2009 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Clinical Research Award, a prestigious award sponsored by the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) and Kappa Delta Sorority was recently awarded to Lawrence C. Hurst, M.D., Marie A. Badalamente, Ph.D., and Edward D. Wang, M.D., a team of Othopaedic faculty researchers at Stony Brook University Medical Center for their work over the last 10 years on the use of collagenase in the treatment of two fibroproliferative disorders - Dupuytren's disease, a hand disorder characterized by progressive accumulation of collagen that deforms the fingers of the hand and limits motion, and frozen shoulder.

The team discovered that injecting clostridial collagenase greatly improved the deformities caused by the collagen build-up, called cords, in the hands of patients with Dupuytren's contracture and appeared to loosen the collagenous adhesions present in the capsule of patients with frozen shoulder.

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