Vnitr Lek 2013, 59(8):724-729

Renal denervation 2013

J. Špinar^1,*, J. Vítovec², L. Špinarová²

¹ Interní kardiologická klinika Lékařské fakulty MU a FN Brno, pracoviště Bohunice, přednosta prof. MUDr. Jindřich Špinar, CSc., FESC

² I. interní kardio-angiologická klinika Lékařské fakulty MU a FN u sv. Anny Brno, přednostka prof. MUDr. Lenka Špinarová, Ph.D., FESC

Arterial hypertension is a worldwide serious clinical problem. It affects 30-40% of the adult population. Resistant hypertension is defined as systolic blood pressure that remains ≥ 140mmHg while in the doctor's surgery and/or as average systolic blood pressure during a 24-hour monitoring of an outpatient ≥ 130mmHg after a combination of three antihypertensive agents (including a diuretic) has been administered in the maximum tolerated dose amounts. Renal denervation is an invasive method of catheter radio frequency ablation of sympathetic nerves located in the walls of renal arteries. The results of the Symplicity HTN-1 and HTN-2 trials proved that renal denervation can safely decrease blood pressure in patients with resistant hypertension. Further research is necessary in order to verify these data, to clarify the questions which remained unanswered and to evaluate future applications of renal denervation. Current experience and recommendations are included, as well as an overview of existing denervation devices and devices which are in development.

Keywords: resistant hypertension; renal denervation of the sympathetic nervous system; Symplicity trial

Received: June 21, 2013; Published: August 1, 2013  Show citation