OTTAWA — Multiple sclerosis patients who are considering travelling abroad for the controversial liberation therapy treatment, linked this week to the death of a Canadian man, should put their passports away, Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq suggested Friday.

Aglukkaq expressed her condolences to the friends and family of Mahir Mostic, an Ontario man who underwent surgery in Costa Rica, and described his death as “tragic.” Asked whether Canadians should be travelling abroad for the treatment, which is not approved here, Aglukkaq advised against it.

“Based on the information I have received from the experts, personally I would not recommend it — but individuals make their own choices,” Aglukkaq said.

News of Mostic’s death has re-ignited debate about the procedure, which involves opening up blocked veins and was developed by Dr. Paolo Zamboni from Italy. Aglukkaq noted that Zamboni himself has said the treatment shouldn’t be done outside of clinical trials. Some Canadian patients have been demanding trials; so far, the federal government has resisted supporting trials because it says there isn’t enough evidence the procedure is safe, or that Zamboni’s theory about blocked veins causing of MS symptoms is sound.

Ottawa is helping to fund seven research projects related to liberation therapy and in the next few weeks an expert panel, partly made up of those researchers, will hold their first meeting to review any preliminary findings. It will also consider the idea of creating a registry of some kind to track Canadians who are going abroad.

Aglukkaq said the federal government will support clinical trials if the scientific evidence shows they are warranted.

Mostic’s death is also highlighting the challenge facing doctors and patients who are seeking followup care at home once they’ve travelled abroad for the surgery.

Mostic had the surgery done in June. Blood clots subsequently formed around the stent that was inserted in his neck; his friends say he couldn’t find a doctor willing to treat him in Canada so he went back to Costa Rica in October.

The Niagara Falls man died there soon after he was given medication to dissolve the clots, which may have triggered internal bleeding.

On Friday, Zamboni said in an interview with CTV that he was saddened by Mostic’s death. He also went on to fault the Costa Rican surgeons for inserting a metal stent into Mostic’s vein, rather than the balloons Zamboni inserts and then removes to widen the veins.

“What was performed is not the methodology that we proposed," he said.