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Hypertension Terapia 2018, 8 ( 367 ) :  49  -  52

Renal denervation in 2018: decline or new prospects for interventional treatment of hypertension?

Summary: Nearly ten years ago percutaneous renal denervation was introduced in clinical trials as a possible method of interventional treatment of resistant hypertension. The promising results of the first clinical trials initiated the intensive development of this method and gave hope for a long-term benefit from the treatment, also in the aspect of cardiovascular risk reduction. Another randomized clinical trial using sham treatment, however, produced different results and questioned the role of treatment of hypertension. Over recent months, the results of important randomized clinical trials using sham treatment have been published, which confirm the efficacy and safety of renal denervation in previously uninvestigated groups of¬ patients: those with hypertension after drug withdrawal, those with poorly controlled hypertension despite 1¬3 antihypertensive drugs, as well as those with resistant hypertension coexisting with obstructive sleep apnea. Despite promising new results that undoubtedly shed new light on the future use of renal denervation in the treatment of hypertension, experts of the European Society of Hypertension in their current position underline that in accordance with the current European guidelines for hypertension management, the use of interventional treatments for hypertension, including renal denervation, should be limited to clinical trials, and that randomized clinical trials using sham treatment have to be performed to further confirm the safety and efficacy of this method in a larger group of patients.
Keywords: renal denervation, hypertension, interventional treatment, cardiovascular risk

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