This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Treating CCSVI--What can we learn from treating coronary angioplasty?

The history of angioplasty, which was adopted without (gasp) clinical trials-



link

cheer

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Husband dx RRMS 3/07
dx dual jugular vein stenosis (CCSVI) 4/09
dual stents placed 5/09
CCSVI in MS

Very enlightening article - this man gets it & I liked what he said in his last 2 paragraphs as well! Thanks Cheer, for the link.

ya

we live in an age of litigation now--this is all about drs needing to protect themselves from malpractice claims...

I think it goes beyond that since meds are often prescribed off-label to patients and they carry some risk and don't have double-blind studies behind them otherwise they wouldn't be considered "off label". Like a lot of medicine, it's sometimes a risk/benefit analysis when there's no clear cut "best" treatment approach. Medicine is practiced in this way all the time. Big pharma only gets slapped on the wrist for it when they use deceptive marketing practices for off-label use.

I don't think this is about a doctor treating a patient and trying innovative ways in an effort to try to work in the patient's best interests. I just can't quite figure out what takes it out of a regular paradigm into something that's experimental requiring oversight. That it's not a drug but a procedure perhaps? Or that there is NO quantified benefit/risk profile established at all (maybe for the reasons that Dr. Brandes writes that even angioplasty doesn't have proper trial data behind it)? Or maybe the death from blood-thinners and the migrating stent incident scared hospital administrators into thinking that perhaps informed consent could NOT be given without better knowing the risks involved through implementing investigation protocols first before allowing widespread treatment?