Dashing Desperate Hopes

"Now it is absolutely clear that no reason exists to allocate any further resources to chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency theory [CCSVI] research, be they financial or intellectual."
Paul Friedmann, German neurologist, Mike Wattjes, Dutch radiologist

"This is not the end of the story, it's just a setback. I just feel that the empirical evidence is so overwhelming that there is benefit that cannot be ascribed to placebo effect when normal blood flow is restored."
Steven Simonyi-Gindele, Reformed Multiple Sclerosis Society

"We realize that for many people with MS this will be of great disappointment. Many people were hoping this was really a breakthrough. ...But unfortunately Dr. Zamboni's original work cannot be validated using the best-quality techniques available."
Dr. T. Traboulsee, head, University of British Columbia research team

A general consensus of opinion has arisen over the controversial theory linked to multiple sclerosis, in reference to Italian surgeon Dr. Paolo Zamboni's campaign to have the medical community recognize his findings that MS is caused by a narrowing of veins draining blood from the brain, that a fairly simple surgical procedure can ameliorate or bring to a cure-state of elimination.

University of British Columbia researchers, led by Dr. Tony Traboulsee have published their definitive report on the issue in the highly respected medical journal The Lancet. Their "gold standard" tests discovered that the issue of narrowing veins draining blood from the brain does not represent a monopolistic medical condition related to multiple sclerosis, no more than it does in other people. The presumed blockages causing MS has, in other words, been debunked.

According to Drs. Friedmann and Wattjes, the finding of the UBC team represents "the definitive conclusion to this discussion". It has taken four years and millions of dollars across the world spent on investigation of the hypothesis to conclude that it represents a waste of resources. And that the issue whose failure has now been corroborated has been media-led, in a hysterical and desperate wish to find a cure for MS.

Despite all of this, people remain passionately convinced in Dr. Zamboni's controversial theory. His treatment to unblock clogged veins, they insist, can bring to reality miraculous benefits in some people. Those are the very same people, desperate to believe that the cure is there, it simply must be practised and believed in, who resent the nay-saying neurologists who dismiss the concept.

In the research conducted by the UBC team "catheter venography"; veins Xrayed after dyeing; was employed. A group of 79 MS patients, another of 43 unrelated controls, and 55 patient siblings were examined to determine whether CCSVI might represent a genetic anomaly. Their discovery was that narrowing of 50% or more occurred in the neck veins of 74% of MS sufferers, 66% of siblings and 70% of the healthy controls; of no statistical significance.

Despite which, in complete fairness to those who believe the surgery works, Dr. Traboulsee is prepared to proceed with a $4-million trial of the Liberation treatment. Roughly half of a registry of B.C. residents who underwent the procedure found significant improvement in their condition; the other half none at all. The improvements, unfortunately, do not last very long before another surgery is required to produce the same liberating effect.

In a commentary published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal, criticism was levelled against media coverage of Dr. Zamboni's theory on the basis that their uncritical reportage of huge successes realized through the surgery forced the MS Society of Canada along with federal and provincial governments to devote scarce monetary resources to the issue, in the face of huge public demand.