The treatment for cerebrospinal venous insuffienciency (CCSVI) in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) is usually balloon angioplasty - the procedure is often called "Liberation Therapy."

The doctors who typically perform this procedure are interventional radiologists (IRs), doctors who do surgery or diagnose disorders using radiological images. The whole idea is that the images will help the doctors diagnose or treat in the least invasive way - instead of cutting patients open to find out what is going on and then fix it, IRs use images to show them a picture of the problem and allow them to get to the exact spot to correct it with tiny instruments, such as needles and catheters.

A group of IRs who have been treating people with CCSVI presented data from 231 MS patients who have received treatment. The data, presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 26th Annual Scientific Meeting, was compelling.

A total of 247 angioplasties (both with and without stent placement) were performed on 147 female and 84 male patients, who ranged in age from 25 to 70 years. In 99.2% of cases, the people were discharged within 3 hours of the procedure. The most significant "side effect" noted was sustained cardiac arrhythmia in 3 of the patients during the procedure, leading to the recommendation that cardiac monitoring be used during surgery. In addition, 8.5% of people experienced headache and 18.5% of people mentioned neck pain.

It was stressed by the IRs that even though the procedure appears to be extremely safe in people with MS, there are still many questions to be answered, including how to select patients and the relationship of CCSVI and MS.

http://ms.about.com/b/2011/04/16/docs-say-ccsvi-treatment-is-safe.htm