Article on Dr Zamboni: Open surgery for CCSVI

[ThisIsMA]

I found this "TCTMD" article through a google news search. See the link below this quote for the full article:

Controversial Intravascular Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis Moves from Cath Lab to the OR

Key Points:
* ‘Father’ of CCSVI theory of MS advocates open surgery for some patients
* Data show increased venous flow, improved brain ventricle volume

By L.A. McKeown
Wednesday, November 25, 2015

http://www.tctmd.com/show.aspx?id=133231

[Cece]

In his presentation in New York last week, Zamboni showed results of 41 patients—27 who underwent surgery and 14 who served as controls. All had “CCSVI associated with neurological disease,” Zamboni said, although he stopped short of identifying them outright as MS patients. In an interview with TCTMD, he said the patients “were not ideal candidates [for angioplasty] because they were very complex cases.” Many of them had external compression coupled with valvular malformation, he added.

Among the surgical procedures performed were: endophlebectomy, muscle section (when appropriate), and autologous vein patch angioplasty. Procedures were bilateral in 15 patients.

On laser Doppler flowmetry, venous outflow and collateral flow index were substantially improved from baseline following the procedure.

1 - what's an endophlebectomy
2 - muscle section of which muscle
3 - improved flow immediately after procedure is good but what was the flow a month or three later? Specifically in vein patch patients, there have been patients elsewhere who had the new vein die off.

Very interesting!!

[ThisIsMA]

Hi Cece,

All good questions!

I'll take a guess at one of your questions: Here's the definition of:

phle·bec·to·my (flĭ-bĕk′tə-mē)
n.
Excision of a segment of a vein. Also called venectomy.
The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

So what does "endo" mean?

endo- or end-
pref.
Inside; within: endometrium.
The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

But now I don't know if "endophlebectomy" means removing a section of the inside of a vein, or removing a section of a vein from inside the body. I'm guessing its the latter, but I'm just guessing altogether, so I do not know...

Happy New Year!