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Renal Denervation: Where to Now?

  • New Therapies for Cardiovascular Disease (KW Mahaffey, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Resistant hypertension remains a growing problem worldwide. Renal sympathetic denervation was thought to be a new method for the treatment for resistant hypertension. Early studies demonstrated a marked benefit in patients who underwent renal denervation procedures, but the pivotal SYMPLICITY 3-HTN trial, the only sham-controlled randomized trial performed, did not show a benefit for patients treated with the procedure compared to sham. There is still much to learn about the physiology and anatomy of renal sympathetic pathways as well as careful attention to medication adherence in order to understand the role of renal sympathetic denervation in treating hypertensive patients. While renal denervation technology remains available in clinical practice outside of the USA, we expect further development of this technology in the upcoming years and the continued evaluation of this technology in patients with hypertension as well as other disease states to fully understand its role.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA, 02132, USA

    Neil J. Wimmer & Laura Mauri

  2. Division of Cardiology, Christiana Care Health System, 4755 Ogletown-Stanton Road, Newark, DE, 19718, USA

    Neil J. Wimmer

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  1. Neil J. Wimmer
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  2. Laura Mauri
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Correspondence to Laura Mauri.

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Neil J. Wimmer has no conflicts of interest.

Laura Mauri reports grants from Abbott, Boston Scientific, Cordis, Medtronic, Eli Lilly, Daiichi Sankyo, Sanofi-Aventis, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Biotronik, other from AstraZeneca and Sanofi, and personal fees from Recor.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on New Therapies for Cardiovascular Disease

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Wimmer, N.J., Mauri, L. Renal Denervation: Where to Now?. Curr Cardiol Rep 17, 116 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-015-0675-8

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