On the 8th, China’s National Health Commission issued a notice on its website, stating that it is prohibiting a surgery named “cervical deep lymphatic vessel/node–venous anastomosis (LVA)” for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (dementia), indicating that the procedure is still at an early clinical research exploration stage and lacks medical evidence. Multiple hospitals in China have been promoting the LVA, with one hospital charging as much as 210,000 RMB (124,100 MYR).
● Family Members Say Effects Are Only Short-Term
The National Health Commission pointed out that the use of LVA to treat Alzheimer’s is still in the early clinical research and exploration stage.
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common types of dementia among the elderly. According to the “China Alzheimer’s Disease Report 2024”, there were 16.99 million patients in 2021.
According to a report by China Newsweek, LVA was first developed as a lymphatic microsurgery by Xie Qingping, former director of Hand Surgery at Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital and president of Hangzhou Qiushi Hospital. It was initially used to treat lymphedema. Since 2018, Xie Qingping has applied it as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
The report and posts on social media indicate that quite a number of patients’ family members found that patients experienced obvious improvement in the short term after undergoing LVA, but later on, symptoms fluctuated or even rebounded.
The report points out that most hospitals in China conducting LVA charge between 10,000 and 50,000 RMB (5,910 to 29,500 MYR). In Hangzhou Qiushi Hospital, the total cost for an LVA surgery and hospitalization can reach as high as 210,000 RMB, and only a small portion of post-surgery rehabilitation costs can be reimbursed through medical insurance. The hospital explained that the high price of LVA is because Xie Qingping personally performs the surgery, and the high threshold is intended to avoid being inundated with requests.
The National Health Commission’s notice stated that LVA is a new surgery still in the early clinical research and exploration stage; its indications and contraindications are not yet clear, and there is a lack of high-quality evidence based on robust clinical research supporting its safety and effectiveness. Therefore, using LVA to treat Alzheimer’s disease is prohibited.