Actually new may be a little inaccurate, perhaps newly-rediscovered is more accurate.
About 13 years ago an Italian Professor of Surgery, Antonio Del Gaudio, (Bologna University) published results of long term follow-up for a new surgical technique he implemented.
He would take the greater omentum (located in diaphragm), which is fatty tissue very rich with lymphatic vessels, and lay it over the operated intestine, and attach it. The reasoning for this is that Crohn's disease is essentially a type of lymphangitis, and restoring proper lymphatic drainage to the region prevents recurrences. His study claimed long term follow up with 0 recurrences (and no medications).
I am new here, so cannot post links, but if you go to Pubmed.org and put in Del Gaudio and Crohn's, you will see his abstracts - if you send me a private message I can send you the papers.
I was in touch with him a couple of times to verify that patients were still well, and so he claimed every time. Then he retired, and I lost contact.
Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the theory of Crohn's being lymphangitis - and one of the world's leading Crohn's docs/researchers, J-F Colombel published a paper entitled "The forgotten role of lymphangitis in Crohn's disease".
Since I may need surgery soon (second time), and I don't have much GI tract to spare, I investigated further. i spoke to a surgeon in London who trained in India and he told me his professor used this technique for fistulas and it always prevented recurrence.
I decided to visit Professor Del Gaudio to check him out. He is in his mid-80's. He has authored about 8 surgical text books (in Italian), and pioneered various surgical techniques for other conditions. He seemed very genuine.
He told me about a center in Europe that had visited him to see his slides and wanted to implement his technique. I contacted them and they told me they have performed it now in 7 patients, and are waiting to see what happens at 6 month follow-up. If there is no recurrence, they will launch a major controlled trial, probably multi-center.
I cannot disclose at this moment details of the center testing it out as I have been told in confidence. However I have been thinking that there must be other methods of restoring lymphatic flow. The New York Academy of Sciences just published a paper on this topic last week - i.e. Crohn's being lymphangitis. But so far there is very little research on which drugs would affect lymphatic flow, or other techniques. Manual Lymphatic Drainage cannot reach the lymphatic area in the abdomen easily.
I know there are devices out there, some based on light therapy, others on vibration / sound, which claim to restore lymphatic flow.
Has anyone had any experience with such therapies, or does anyone have knowledge of effective therapies for this purpose?
About 13 years ago an Italian Professor of Surgery, Antonio Del Gaudio, (Bologna University) published results of long term follow-up for a new surgical technique he implemented.
He would take the greater omentum (located in diaphragm), which is fatty tissue very rich with lymphatic vessels, and lay it over the operated intestine, and attach it. The reasoning for this is that Crohn's disease is essentially a type of lymphangitis, and restoring proper lymphatic drainage to the region prevents recurrences. His study claimed long term follow up with 0 recurrences (and no medications).
I am new here, so cannot post links, but if you go to Pubmed.org and put in Del Gaudio and Crohn's, you will see his abstracts - if you send me a private message I can send you the papers.
I was in touch with him a couple of times to verify that patients were still well, and so he claimed every time. Then he retired, and I lost contact.
Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the theory of Crohn's being lymphangitis - and one of the world's leading Crohn's docs/researchers, J-F Colombel published a paper entitled "The forgotten role of lymphangitis in Crohn's disease".
Since I may need surgery soon (second time), and I don't have much GI tract to spare, I investigated further. i spoke to a surgeon in London who trained in India and he told me his professor used this technique for fistulas and it always prevented recurrence.
I decided to visit Professor Del Gaudio to check him out. He is in his mid-80's. He has authored about 8 surgical text books (in Italian), and pioneered various surgical techniques for other conditions. He seemed very genuine.
He told me about a center in Europe that had visited him to see his slides and wanted to implement his technique. I contacted them and they told me they have performed it now in 7 patients, and are waiting to see what happens at 6 month follow-up. If there is no recurrence, they will launch a major controlled trial, probably multi-center.
I cannot disclose at this moment details of the center testing it out as I have been told in confidence. However I have been thinking that there must be other methods of restoring lymphatic flow. The New York Academy of Sciences just published a paper on this topic last week - i.e. Crohn's being lymphangitis. But so far there is very little research on which drugs would affect lymphatic flow, or other techniques. Manual Lymphatic Drainage cannot reach the lymphatic area in the abdomen easily.
I know there are devices out there, some based on light therapy, others on vibration / sound, which claim to restore lymphatic flow.
Has anyone had any experience with such therapies, or does anyone have knowledge of effective therapies for this purpose?
