Calgarians Suffering From MS 'Liberation Therapy' Complications

Five people who travelled abroad to get the controversial treatment have only ended up in more pain, just as Ottawa decides to fund clinical trials.

A new study finds that five Calgarians who underwent “liberation therapy” to treat their multiple sclerorsis suffer from lingering painful complications of the procedure with no dramatic improvement with the disease. The University of Calgary study takes some wind out of the sails of proponents of liberation therapy, trials of which have recently been approved by the federal government. Liberation therapy uses stents to clear the blockage out of veins in the neck, following the unproven assumption that multiple sclerosis is caused by a lack of blood flowing from the brain. MS patients in Canada have had to travel abroad to get the procedure done, with many flying to Costa Rica, Ukraine, Romania, and India to undergo it. However, these Calgarians reported suffering such post-op symptoms as nerve damage in the skull, blood clots, and cervical pain. In some cases, the stents used to increase the bloodflow were too big or moved from their intended location, leading to all sorts of pain.