Renal Denervation

Basic Facts:

  • Renal denervation (also called renal ablation) is a minimally invasive procedure to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) when patients continue to have elevated blood pressure despite medications and healthy lifestyle changes. This type of hypertension is called resistant hypertension.
  • Your brain, heart and kidneys send messages to nerves throughout your body to help regulate your blood pressure. Overactivity in these nerves can increase your blood pressure. Renal denervation reduces activity in the renal nerves which runs near the kidneys. This, in turn, helps lower blood pressure.
Renal Denervation
  • An interventional cardiologist uses a catheter positioned into the renal arteries to send ultrasound or radiofrequency (heat) energy the area around the arteries (this is where the nerves travel). This energy ablates the renal nerves without damaging the arteries. The reduced nerve activity causes a drop in blood pressure.
  • Your provider may recommend renal denervation if you have resistant hypertension. To be a candidate for renal denervation, you also need to have healthy blood vessels.
  • Renal denervation takes 1-2 hours. You receive sedation to keep you comfortable throughout the procedure. This is not general anesthesia.
  • During renal denervation, an interventional cardiologist:
  1. Numbs an area on one side of your groin with local anesthesia (area about the size of a marble)
  2. Makes a small incision in your groin and inserts a catheter into your femoral artery, the blood vessel that sends blood to your lower body
  3. Guides the catheter to the renal arteries in your kidneys
  4. Uses ultrasound or radiofrequency pulses to strategically damage the nerves in your renal arteries
  5. Recovery is 4-5 hours to make sure there is no bleeding at the access site. This includes a period of laying flat and not moving after the procedure.

    If you have one of the following conditions, renal denervation may not be for you:

    1. Reduced kidney function with GFR < 40 mL/min
    2. Adult polycystic kidney disease, renal tumors, renal transplant, renal artery stenosis, fibromuscular dysplasia, renal artery aneurysm
    1. We ask patients to avoid rigorous exercise or picking up heavy objects for 48-72 hours. Then patients can return to normal activities
    2. Your provider gives you specific instructions to care for yourself after the procedure.
      1. Renal denervation offers an innovative treatment for patients with hypertension that is not well controlled by medications. Patients experience lower blood pressure, reducing the risk of stroke, kidney disease and heart failure. For many people, the treatment can significantly reduce their hypertension medications.
      2. As a minimally invasive procedure with just a tiny incision, renal denervation is performed as an outpatient procedure (patient's go home the same day). The procedure typically takes 1-2 hours and patients will be monitored for 4-5 hours afterwards before being sent home. Although this is a new tool, the physician techniques and skills used are not new. Our interventional cardiologists are trained and experienced in each step of the process.
      3. An experienced provider can perform renal ablation safely and effectively with a low risk of complications (typically 1%). Most frequent complication is bleeding at the access site (needle stick in the groin). A medical professional will walk you through the risks of the procedure prior to scheduling.