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It is true that arterial angioplasties and the insertion of stents into certain arteries are well established medical procedures. Arteries are muscular, thick-walled vessels that carry oxygenated blood under high pressure from the heart to the tissues.

Veins are thin-walled and collapse naturally when not filled with blood. Veins, in contrast to arterial structures, have lower intravascular blood pressure and thus it is more difficult to keep a vein open than an artery.

When a narrowed vein is treated by balloon venoplasty, it is like stretching an elastic. This is what creates a risk of elastic recoil, when the venoplasty balloon is removed from the vein, the vein returns to its original shape due to its elastic properties. This increases risk of restenosis in veins over arteries.

This fits with Dr. Sclafani's current investigation into how to overcome elastic recoil with greater balloon sizes and pressures, such as an 18 mm balloon at 14 atm.

I just had a follow-up appointment with the doctor who did my first procedure. He indicated elastic recoil was normal and that repeat procedures could be the norm for many people. He said it would take some time to find out what the normal rate of restenosis would be for people with MS, but repeat procedures are standard for many vascular conditions, each of which has its own unique profile for restenosis because different anatomical locations produce different venous conditions. He thought it was probably unrealistic for people to think that ONE procedure would address their entire lifetime of MS issues.

It was actually very positive. Far from thinking that a return of symptoms meant that there was in any way a failure, he thought that could be positive, because it could indicate that there was a cause-effect relationship -- and a repeat procedure could make a difference, with possibly scheduled yearly maintenance, and potentially an overall better safety profile than something like a monthly infusion, with higher risks of PML, cancer, infection, liver damage, etc.

Mind you, I should make it clear that this is *me* blabbing and interpreting here, so any errors are mine. But yes, elastic recoil apears to be a big issue, and addressing it will really help. I think this is what I've experienced.