The Guangdong Sanjiu (999) Cerebral Hospital, one of China's first hospitals to use brain surgery as a form of rehabilitation for drug addicts, is seeking an apology from China Central Television (CCTV) for a program that criticized the procedure.

At a press conference on Monday, the hospital claimed the program had used "groundless" material that severely harmed the hospital's reputation, according to a report in Tuesday's Guangzhou Daily.

The hospital alleged that CCTV exaggerated the side effects of the procedure, pointing out that although the Ministry of Health (MOH) banned the procedure last month, it had not yet drawn conclusions as to side effects.

In the November 26 edition of CCTV's popular news program, Oriental Horizon, reporters interviewed a woman and her 26-year-old son. The latter had undergone the surgery at the Sanjiu hospital.

"After the surgery, he acted much slower than before," the mother said on the program. "He walks very slowly now, always falling behind me when we go out."

Asked by the reporter to move a camera tripod about two meters, the man bumped a cup on a tea table. The broadcast indicated that he had a problem coordinating his movements.

At the subsequent press conference, the man denied he had such a problem. "The room was too small and I tripped on a tripod leg," he said.

Also during the program, a question was raised about post-surgical prescription of the drug Naltrexone, used in the treatment of narcotics addiction.

"If the patients have really been cured, they don't need the medicine," said Han Jisheng, director of the Neurological Science Research Center at Peking University, in an interview on the program.

The hospital stated that it used the medication only as auxiliary treatment.

The Guangzhou Daily reported that in 2001 the hospital received approval from the local department of health to use the procedure in clinical trials. The hospital had also applied to the MOH -- a central government body whose approval often comes with substantial funding -- but approval was denied.

In July this year, the clinical trial period approved at the local level expired and a request for extension was denied, said the Guangzhou Daily.

Xu Dezhi, head of the Sanjiu Cerebral Hospital, said last month that Sanjiu had never charged more than costs for conducting the procedure as it was in the clinical trial phase and the procedure had been closely monitored by the MOH.

In a circular issued on November 2, the MOH banned all hospitals from further clinical trials of the procedure until assessment of the risks had been completed.

Although clinical application had not been approved, a number of hospitals scattered throughout the country were reportedly charging high fees for the procedure.

The MOH directed hospitals in Sichuan and Guangdong provinces, which had conducted most of the 500-plus operations, to collate and evaluate their results. The MOH would then assess overall findings and determine whether the procedure would be permitted in the future.

Reportedly, Chinese law pertaining to clinical trials is unclear, with no specific prohibition against conducting clinical trials without government permission. Denial of permission means only that the trials will not receive government funding, and some researchers charge patients for experimental procedures in order to fund their own studies.

(Shenzhen Daily, China.org.cn December 2, 2004)