The Breakthrough Treatment for MS | View it in your browser. CCSVI Angioplasty Safety There has been some discussions about the safety of angioplasty in CCSVI. Critics of this approach are quick to point to the small number of complications that have occurred; though this would be expected with any new procedure. It is therefore very welcome to see the paper published in the recent issue of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology which shows excellent safety for this procedure. The authors retrospectively reviewed 247 procedures for post operative complications up to 30 days post op. 229 ( 92.7%) were primary procedures and the rest were repeat procedures where the patients had re-stenosed. Of the primary procedures the vast majority were simple angioplasties ( 86%) with 26 ( 11%) having at least one stent implanted. Five patients were not treated with either procedure. Of the 18 patients treated for a second time, half had stent implantation. Over 50% of these procedures were carried out in an outpatient setting and a remarkable 99.2% of the total were discharged within three hours of the treatment. Complications were rare, three patients had abnormalities of heart rate of which two required hospital admission. One patient had a prolonged stay due to clot formation in the stent. 8.5% of patients had headache post op, only one patient still had this at 30 days. 15.8% complained of neck pain post operatively of which over half had stent implantation. At the Bologna conference, Paulo Zamboni informed me that there would soon be over 2,000 angioplasty cases reported in the published literature without major complication. This fits well with our own experience in over 200 cases in the UK where we have used angioplasty only. We have been liaising with NICE regarding the safety and efficacy of angioplasty treatment in CCSVI. As the only UK unit currently offering this treatment we will continue to report our findings to NICE to help establish the UK safety data. What is becoming very clear from this paper and other evidence, is that this intervention, although invasive and not without risk, is generally very safe. We need to collect more data regarding the efficacy of the intervention in order to continue to push to make this a standard treatment for MS. Dr Tom Gilhooly took part in a Sponsored Bike Ride in the largest closed roads race in the UK, over 81 miles including a mountain pass. Thank you for all who took the trouble to sponsor him and help him raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.. Our mailing address is: Unit 75, Mitchell Arcade, Rutherglen, Glasgow. G73 2LS Copyright (C) 2011 Glasgow Health Solutions Ltd (T/A Essential Health Clinic) All rights reserved.