Doctor used 'unproven' cholesterol therapy

A DOCTOR who gave patients an “experimental, unproven” therapy to treat high cholesterol, costing some €1,850, yesterday undertook never to use it again at a hearing of the fitness-to-practise committee of the Medical Council.

The inquiry into Dr Samuel van Eeden, a GP originally from South Africa who had been running his practice at the Malahide Medical Centre, Co Dublin since 2005, took place yesterday. It arose from a complaint made by other GPs.

It was alleged Dr van Eeden gave patients intravenous infusions of phosphatidylcholine (lipo-plaq) to treat high cholesterol, where there was not adequate evidence of its benefits and where this had not been made clear to patients.

Consultant cardiologist at the Mater Hospital Gavin Blake said it was “not appropriate” for GPs to offer “experimental, unproven treatment involving intravenous infusion”. Dr Blake had not come across the treatment, nor “any convincing evidence to support its use” in this context. Because high cholesterol was so common, there were “fairly rigorous interventions” for it already, such as the use of statin drugs.

If Dr van Eeden was considering an “experimental novel treatment”, then “ a specialist opinion” should have been sought, he said.

Dr Blake had reviewed 29 cases of patients who were given or offered the treatment by Dr van Eeden. There were “no adverse outcomes” as a result and patients were “otherwise appropriately treated”, with most ending up on statins, he said.

Dr van Eeden was also accused of promoting the treatment with false or misleading information.

Dr Blake expressed “significant concerns” about information given to patients by Dr van Eeden through a leaflet and website.

The information claimed that when the treatment was complete patients could “assume the risk of heart bypass or store has been significantly reduced” and that it would “cure” and “eradicate” the risk of coronary disease. It claimed the treatment made the patient feel younger, with more energy and libido.

Dr Blake said a lot of terms were “not based on fact”, were “actually misleading” and used emotive terms “which encourage the patient to consider treatment, but without scientific foundation”. If the lipo-plaq treatment broke down plaques in the arteries as claimed, then “we would all be queuing for it”, he said.

Patients whose parents had died young of heart disease were “vulnerable “because they were “very concerned about their risk of coronary disease”, he said.

Simon Mills, barrister for Dr van Eeden, said the doctor accepted he had been “wrongly” persuaded about the treatment and had ceased providing it.