By Thomas Miller
Vegreville-Wainwright MP Leon Benoit says he is in favour of a controversial new treatment for multiple sclerosis that will undergo a trial period in Canada starting next year.
According to CCSVI.ca, a website maintained by the MS Society of Canada, the treatment, called liberation procedure, was created by Italian Paolo Zamboni, who theorized that chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) was linked to MS.
Zamboni’s theory states that certain veins are blocked or narrowed, meaning blood cannot drain out of the brain or spinal cord, and Darrel Gregory, director of communications for the Alberta and Northwest Territories division of the MS Society, said the procedure attempts to rectify that by inserting a balloon into the jugular veins, forming angioplasty.
The procedure is already available in other countries and Benoit said that some Lloydminster residents are travelling to have it done, costing anywhere from $8,000 to $15,000, including the procedure.
“There are several from the Lloydminster area who have (had the treatment),” he said. “Because they can’t get it in Canada, they go across the border and I have met with several of them from the Lloydminster group, from Wainwright and from other places. There are estimates that maybe up to 10,000 Canadians that have gone either to the United States or to Costa Rica or Mexico or Poland or a list of other places to have this procedure done.”
Benoit added that if the procedure were available in Canada it would lower the cost to approximately $2,000.
“For some it’s a real stretch of the pocketbooks because for a lot of them there has been a lot of costs borne since the symptoms of MS have gotten more severe,” he said. “It’s only people with very severe symptoms, so at the late stages of a progressive MS, who are considering this procedure or having it done.
“For most of the people who have had it done, the results, right when they’ve had it done, are quite dramatic, very positive.”
However, Benoit noted, the procedure is not a cure – there is no known cure for MS.
“For most of these people a few months after the procedure it starts to slip back again and that’s well-recognized and some of them probably will go back for another procedure later,” he said.

“That seems to vary though. There’s one clinic in particular where that doesn’t seem to happen as much and that’s because they use a different procedure. It’s doing the same thing generally, but for example at one clinic near Los Angeles, they don’t only open the vein so that the blood will drain back from the brain and spinal column, but they also open the jugular valve to help the drainage.”
Right now research proposals are being accepted by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for clinical trials of CCSVI – the research team will be selected in March and trials are set to being shortly thereafter.
“So far the way the Health Canada officials put it to me in a briefing they had, when I asked the question, ‘Are there any risks that have come out to having this procedure done, beyond the risks of another similar kind of surgery?’ And they had to say no,” said Benoit.
He added the caveat that some people have died following the procedure, but said that shouldn’t be a deterrent because a small percentage of common surgeries can have fatal complications as well.
“If the results continue to seem to be pretty positive, that will encourage them to work even a little faster, if they can, to make it available. The end result we don’t know yet. That’s why this whole process is being worked through.”

Benoit and Ritz host open house

On Friday at Ernie’s Coffee House in Lloydminster, Benoit will host a Christmas open house along with Gerry Ritz, MP for the Battlefords-Lloydminster riding.
The open house will take place from 4 to 7 p.m., and constituents will have the chance to pick the brain of their respective MP.

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