The controversial “liberation therapy,” which aims to treat Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by widening narrowed veins in the neck and chest, has been dealt a blow by its main backer.
A large-scale randomized clinical trial of venous percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) found that it is ineffective in treating the neurological condition. The study, published in JAMA Neurology, was led by Dr. Paolo Zamboni — the Italian vascular surgeon who first suggested, in 2009, that narrowed veins in the head and neck, a condition he dubbed chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), could be a cause of MS and that widening them could treat the disease. Read more in CMAJ.