Spray-gel is not generally available in the US. It is in clinical trials in a couple of locations in the US, but under most circumstances it would be unethical to enroll an ARD patient in one of these studies. You see the vast majority of human beings will form adhesions if they have surgery (it is estimated that 30-40% of Americans have them.) And for the vast, vast majority of people with adhesions they never have the slightest problem with them at all. THOSE are the people who belong in a clinical trial.
You see, if you are in the trial there is a 50-50 chance that you will not get the spray-gel. Now for most people, being in the non-spray-gel group and getting adhesions from the surgery is not a big deal. Most likely those adhesions will never cause those people any problems, and they will have made a contribution to science in providing a baseline which to measure spray-gel's effects against.
On the other hand, if you ALREADY have ARD, then you ALREADY know that adhesions will cause YOU problems. It would be unethical to put you in the non-spray-gel group if the surgeon knows that surgery without spray-gel will almost certainly cause you problems.
To be honest, given the preliminary success that spray-gel has had in other countries over the past year, I think that it would be unethical for a surgeon to perform an adhesiolysis in the US at this time. It's one thing to do emergency surgery on an ARD patient who has a bowel obstruction that can't be cleared any other way, or to take out the appendix of somebody with appendicitis, or to remove something that is cancerous. But just going in and "cleaning out" the adhesions is almost always futile without the spray-gel, and may very well not be with spray-gel. Knowing that spray-gel could be approved over the next 6-18 months, then I think that it is unethical for any surgeon to be going in and doing an adhesiolysis on anyone who could wait until spray-gel is approved.
At Mon, 3 Feb 2003, Ramona wrote:
>
>Hi Ramona from Illinois. I posted earlier today and no replys what so
>ever. Maybe I asked a taboo question. But I just canceled my
>appointment with my doctor and rescheduled for friday as I want to be
>more knowledgeable. Is Spray Gel available in the USA. I am on liquid
>diet and becoming weak but cant take the pain of eatting food. Im
>willing to try anything. Help any response is welcomed. Ramona
-- cathy :-)