This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

burks is a partner in crime

Dr. Burks disclosed financial relationships with Acorda, Allergan, Avanir, Bayer, Biogen Idec, Novartis, and Serono.

I have.



Mr. Success

"Neurologists believe the interventionalists are overstating the possible value of CCSVI and that commercial interests are overriding scientific inquiry," according to Dr. Burks, a neurologist and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno. Patients, armed with anecdotal evidence downloaded from the Internet, are certain that CCSVI surgery is the miracle they’ve been waiting for and perceive the hesitancy of U.S. and Canadian neurologists to embrace the treatment as evidence of a possible conspiracy with pharmaceutical companies who stand to lose billions of dollars if the surgery becomes a first-line treatment, he said. Further, he noted, advocates of CCSVI claim that neurologists who refuse patients’ demands for diagnostic testing and surgical referral for CCSVI are jeopardizing the safety of those patients, who are traveling to foreign countries such as Poland, Bulgaria, Mexico, Costa Rica, and India to get the care that they cannot receive in North America.

Multiple sclerosis patients and endovascular interventionalists were elated when Italian researchers reported in 2009 that they had found evidence of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency in nearly every MS patient they had studied and that in many cases, balloon angioplasty and sometimes stent placement of central thoracic veins reduced or eliminated signs of the disease.

Further, he noted, advocates of CCSVI claim that neurologists who refuse patients’ demands for diagnostic testing and surgical referral for CCSVI are jeopardizing the safety of those patients, who are traveling to foreign countries such as Poland, Bulgaria, Mexico, Costa Rica, and India to get the care that they cannot receive in North America.

Both camps point to the much publicized case of a Canadian MS patient who traveled to Costa Rica for jugular vein angioplasty and died from a ruptured vessel as evidence that supports their respective positions, said Dr. Burks.

Additionally, "we need to establish a CCSVI patient registry that documents outcomes and adverse events, as well as other relevant data, and disseminate that document widely to all groups," Dr. Burks said. Doing so will go far toward mending the fractious community and directing energy toward optimal patient care, he stated.

To sum up, neurologists are objectively neutral about CCSVI and have only their patient's best interests in mind in rejecting this radical unproven treatment until better research is performed. Those performing the procedures, on the other hand, are only in it for the money and their supporters are comprised of conspiracy theorists, internet bloggers, and nut jobs

I've never seen anyone so staunchly held to a statement when they haven't said a word scorp! This is a first!

NEW thisisms POLICY!: If you're going to post an article at thisisms make sure that you agree with every word of it and are willing to defend it to the death!

t's a myth that ms is an autoimmune disease and it took a vascular surgeon to show this not a neurologist and now they're so hostile they're practically foaming at the mouth .