What is renal denervation?
Renal denervation is a treatment to improve blood pressure control, which provides a decrease not only in blood pressure, but also in systemic sympathetic nerve activity. The procedure is performed under sedation and with a one-day hospital stay.
Why is renal denervation performed?
This treatment is performed in patients suffering from resistant hypertension. This pathology occurs when someone has excessive pressure in the bloodstream of the arteries but is unable to lower it, even though they are taking more than three drugs a day and have made changes in their habits.
What does renal denervation consist of?
Renal ablation is performed by introducing a catheter with four electrodes into the renal arteries via the femoral artery. Once the device is in place, the catheter emits heat of 40 to 50 degrees to override small nerves in the renal artery. In this way, the kidney creates less of the hormones that increase blood pressure. The procedure is performed on both kidneys.
Preparation for renal denervation
So far, no significant side effects have been reported.
Care after the procedure
After the procedure, the patient should take progressively less and less drugs, and may be able to stop taking two or three drugs as a result of the results.