Why is a simple neck surgery raising hopes for China’s Alzheimer’s disease patients?

Chinese doctors say affordable procedure works in ‘60 to 80 per cent’ of patients, but some medical experts are sceptical

Reading Time:4 minutes

Of the more than 55 million people worldwide with dementia, an estimated 60 to 70 per cent have Alzheimer’s disease. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 2:00pm, 3 Dec 2024

Chinese doctors say a minor surgery to treat Alzheimer’s disease is “effective for 60 to 80 per cent of patients”, sparking hopes that it could be a game-changer for those affected by the devastating disease.

The surgical treatment, which involves four small incisions in a patient’s neck, has been conducted on hundreds of patients at top public hospitals across China.

However, while the treatment appears promising, some medical experts warn that more studies are needed to test it.

The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is not known for certain, but one hypothesis is that deposits of a substance in the brain known as beta-amyloid, which can induce the death of nerve cells, accelerate the onset and progression of the disease. This is the idea behind the Chinese treatment.

The procedure, called “lymphatic-venous anastomosis” (LVA), connects the patient’s lymph vessels to veins near the neck, speeding up the flow and drainage of lymph fluid, which doctors believe could boost the removal of harmful proteins, including beta-amyloid, from the brain, thereby slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

The results so far have attracted media attention. A local newspaper in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou reported last month that a 68-year-old woman had undergone the operation at Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, affiliated with Westlake University, and her cognitive ability had improved a week later.