New developments in the treatment of severe drug resistant hypertension

The purpose of this paper is to review the state-of-the-art of renal denervation system technology for treatment of drug resistant hypertension. We describe an investigational device that is currently tested in an on-going clinical trial. The denervation device uses the RF thermal ablation catheter attached to the RF generator. The RF catheter is inserted into the renal artery and positioned in the vicinity of the efferent and afferent parasympathetic innervations. Renal denervation is a minimally invasive, localized procedure and the procedural and recovery times are very short. The entire procedure lasts about 40 min. In early clinical trials, the systolic blood pressure in 87% of patients who underwent the denervation procedure resulted in an average blood pressure drop of greater than 10 mm Hg. The procedure has no systematic side effects, and appears to be beneficial in the management of hypertension in patients refractory to pharmacological therapy.