Research Areas

The Illingworth Lab focuses on pediatric spinal deformity, neuromuscular scoliosis, cervical spine disorders and pediatric orthopedic trauma, with an emphasis on improving surgical safety, perioperative care and long-term outcomes for children.

A central focus of the Illingworth Lab's work is improving correction strategies for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, neuromuscular scoliosis and early-onset scoliosis. Their studies examine how surgical techniques such as posterior column osteotomies, growing-rod constructs and pedicle-based fixation influence curve correction, sagittal balance and the long-term health of the spine after fusion.

As director of pediatric orthopedic trauma, Kenneth D. Illingworth, MD, investigates how to optimize the care of common but high-stakes injuries in growing children, including supracondylar humerus fractures, distal radius fractures, femur fractures and the unique injuries that occur near skeletal maturity. This work helps refine when surgery is necessary, which fixation strategies are most reliable and how training and protocols affect real-world outcomes.

A growing portion of his research focuses on identifying patients at higher risk of complications and developing tools to mitigate that risk. Projects in this area include the development of a pediatric spine frailty index, analyses of neuromonitoring changes during deformity correction and studies of pseudarthrosis and revision surgery aimed at making complex pediatric procedures safer.

Recognizing that children are uniquely sensitive to radiation, Illingworth contributes to research on lower-radiation imaging strategies, including biplanar low-dose radiography and MRI-generated synthetic CT. These efforts seek to preserve diagnostic accuracy while reducing lifetime exposure for pediatric patients.