Renal Sympathetic Denervation for Resistant Hypertension Treatment - Current Perspectives

The authors review the concept of resistant hypertension and the involvement ofthe sympathetic nervous system in hypertension as a rational basis for thetechnique of renal sympathetic denervation (RSD) performed percutaneously. Thisrevision is the result of an active search for scientific articles with the term"renal denervation" in the Medline and PubMed databases. The techniques anddevices used in the procedure are presented, as well as clinical outcomes atsix, 12 and 24 months after the intervention with the Symplicity catheter.Significant decreases and progressively higher reductions of systolic anddiastolic blood pressure were observed after RSD. The complication rate wasminimal. New devices for RSD and its ongoing clinical studies are cited. Inconclusion, the RSD presents itself as an effective and safe approach toresistant hypertension. Results from ongoing studies and longer follow-up ofthese patients are expected to confirm the initial results and put intoperspective the expansion of the procedure use in hypertension approach.