Renal artery angioplasty. Technical considerations and results

Renal angioplasty was attempted on 38 renal arteries in 34 patients and was technically successful in 84.2%. Twenty-four patients were followed for 1 to 36 months (mean 15.3 months). The hypertension was cured or improved in 18 (75%), unchanged in 2 and recurrent after an initial period of improvement in four. Six patients were not available for further evaluation as five had additional renovascular surgery and one was lost to followup. Four patients had major complications; loss of the kidney occurred in one patient (2.9%). Respiratory renal mobility, predilatation with tapered teflon catheters and the contralateral femoral approach were found to be important technical aids for successful renal artery angioplasty.