‘Liberation therapy’ ineffective for treating MS, Canadian study concludes
TORONTO — A long-awaited Canadian study of a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis known as “liberation therapy” has debunked the procedure, saying it is ineffective and should be avoided.
Liberation therapy involves opening up narrowed veins in the neck, a procedure that an estimated 3,000 Canadians with MS have undergone in clinics outside Canada at a cost of many thousands of dollars each. The experimental therapy is not approved in Canada.
The procedure was first put forward as a potential treatment in 2009 by Dr. Paulo Zamboni, who asserted that narrowed veins in the neck could cause iron deposits to create lesions in the brain, leading to multiple sclerosis.
The Italian vascular surgeon dubbed the condition chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI, and cited dozens of cases of patients who improved after he performed the treatment, known as a venoplasty.