Bobby Jones Chiari & Syringomyelia Foundation

Transitioning care to adult providers. Conditions like Chiari malformation, hydrocephalus, and spina bifida are often treated by pediatric neurosurgeons, but the need for continuous care for these disorders extends well beyond the transition to adulthood. In fact, becoming an adult often marks the start of new challenges… and finding the adult providers who truly understand these complex conditions isn’t easy. This work has already begun. We completed interviews with existing transition programs and  started our preliminary outreach work. In July 2025, we submitted 6 abstracts to present at the upcoming annual meeting of the Joint Section in December 2025. Five of the six submitted were accepted to the meeting.

Learn more about why this work matters here. This page will continue to be updated over the next year!

2025 Research Colloquium. The 2025 Research Colloquium was held in Los Angeles, California on October 11, 2025. You can learn more about the Colloquium and review previous years’ meetings on our website.

As permissible, videos of this year’s presentations will be added to the BJCSF website over the coming months. Stay tuned!

Some of the presentations from this years meeting included:

• Investigation of CSF flow dynamics in Chiari malformation and hydrocephalus – Peter Chiarelli, MD, DPhil | Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ
• Chiari I and semi-sitting position for patients with high BMI – Hamid Borghei-Razavi, MD | Cleveland Clinic, Weston, FL
• Rehabilitation strategies that protect/extend surgical outcomes in Chiari & craniocervical disorders – Marcia C. Perretto, DPT | ActifyPT, Boca Raton, FL
• Implications of the expression of inflammatory and fibrotic markers in the CSF and arachnoid of patients with arachnoiditis and syringomyelia – John D. Heiss, MD | National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke, Bethesda, MD
• Intraoperative phase contrast MRI analysis of cerebrospinal fluid velocities during Chiari decompression – Anthony C. Wang, MD |  University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
• Early experience: Posterior vault distraction osteogenesis (PVDO) in Chiari – James Baumgartner, MD and Joseph Lopez, MD | Advent Health, Orlando, FL
• The scientific basis for neuroplasticity-based physical therapy – Susan Chalela, MPT and Leslie Russek, DPT | Chalela Physical Therapy, Charleston, SC and Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
• Chiari, syringes, & scoliosis: expectations and outcomes – Mark Krieger, MD | Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
• Management of arachnoid cysts in conjunction with Chiari abnormalities – Zoe Teton, MD |  University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA