The Italian doctor who gave multiple sclerosis sufferers hope their condition could be treated with a simple procedure – and prompted many of them to cross borders and shell out thousands of dollars to receive it – has now warned patients against receiving the treatment until further clinical trials have been conducted.

Paolo Zamboni, a researcher at the University of Ferrera, has posited that the improper drainage of blood from the brain, termed chronic cerebro-spinal venous insufficiency, may play a part in causing MS, which is generally believed to be an autoimmune disease.

If Dr. Zamboni’s hypothesis is true, it would suggest MS can be treated by opening up the blood vessels to the brain – a procedure dubbed “liberation therapy.”

According to NeuroSens, a subscription-based news service on neurological matters, Dr. Zamboni told an MS conference in Gothenburg, Sweden, that patients shouldn’t go ahead with such surgery, except in the case of clinical trials.

“Surgery is not recommended at this stage,” he said, during a presentation this week to the Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS.

He also said he does not support “medical tourism” – the practice of some patients who travel overseas to clinics that will perform the surgery. Thousands of people are believed to have done this.

Those who believe in the theory, however, said Dr. Zamboni’s caution likely won’t change the minds of those who are determined to receive surgery to open their blood vessels.

Duncan Thornton, a Winnipeg advocate of the surgery, said that, with few other options on the horizon, MS sufferers were compelled to get the treatment.

“Certain cautions are warranted. There are going to be places that will be better and worse,” he said. “You can phrase those cautions as strongly as you like, but medical tourism can [only] be avoided if you can have this procedure in Canada.”