Paralysis patients take a chance

I found this article to be quite interesting. While Huang Hongyun, the Chinese neurosurgeon performing these experimental treatments, is not following proper medical protocol according to western doctors, he does admit himself that what he provides is not a cure, but rather prolonging one's life. It may very well though be quite promising for patients with spinal cord injuries. It would be good if other doctors would begin controlled studies themselves, but then, of course, there's the matter of harvesting cells from aborted fetuses. Probably too controversial, I suppose, or not allowed.

Paralysis patients take a chance'No scientific evidence'

Skeptical doctors back home aren't convinced. They say Huang doesn't keep track of his patients, so no one knows how many experience lasting benefits. And they say he has failed to perform the controlled studies that could verify anecdotal reports of improvement.

"We don't know why what's happening is happening. ... We want the data. Unfortunately, the data doesn't exist," says Maura Hofstadter, director of education and scientific liaison at the Reese-Irvine Research Center in Irvine, Calif., which studies spinal cord injuries.

The Miami Project sent a team of doctors to Huang's clinic about six months ago, but they came away unimpressed, Green says. "There really was no scientific evidence to substantiate that this was a safe or effective treatment."

Green says he offered to pay for a second team to spend six months to one year in Beijing performing a scientific study of Huang's work, but Huang opted to expand his practice to eight medical centers rather than accept the offer.

Interviewed at his clinic in Beijing's Fragrant Hills area, Huang, 50, grows visibly exasperated. The clinic lacks the money and manpower to follow every patient. Any objections to his work stem from a cultural bias against Chinese methods, he says. "It's discrimination. They don't really know what I'm doing. It's just nonsense."

He refuses to disclose his compensation, though in December he told a British newspaper, The Guardian, that he received a flat $500 monthly salary no matter how many operations he did.

In defiance of the experts' doubts, Huang's ward is full of patients from the USA and Europe; his waiting list extends into 2007. Reflecting his global appeal, the waiting-room wall clocks read New York, London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo and Beijing.

Goal is to prolong lifeNo controlled trials

Huang has published articles in professional journals that are little known outside China, including the Chinese Medical Journal and the Chinese Journal of Clinical Rehabilitation. While both are regarded here as reputable, peer-reviewed journals, they are less prestigious than Western publications, says Zhang Hongde of Peking Union Medical College's publishing house. "The top articles usually go to the foreign medical journals," he says.

Huang bristles when asked about his failure to perform controlled trials, which could involve operating on patients without giving them the fetal cells. He says such "sham surgery" is unethical. "I hate to discuss this. I think it is a stupid question. I'm not allowed to do this by Chinese law."

But his refusal to comply with standard scientific practice guarantees that the criticism will continue.

"He's in an environment that's scientifically unsophisticated. There's no control. You can do whatever you want," Green says. "What he's doing is wrong."

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