Renal denervation expands treatment options for patients with high blood pressure. Only a handful of centers in the country currently offer this leading-edge peripheral intervention to effectively lower blood pressure without medication.
What is Renal Denervation?
Renal denervation (also called renal ablation) is a minimally invasive, investigational procedure to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) that hasn't improved with other treatments. 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 in the kidneys to help lower blood pressure.
An interventional cardiologist uses a catheter to send ultrasound or radiofrequency (heat) energy to the renal arteries, the blood vessels supplying blood to the kidneys. This energy destroys (ablates) 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 Ablation Benefits and Risks
Renal denervation offers an innovative treatment for patients with hypertension that is not well controlled by medication. 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 medication dosage, or allow them to stop medication altogether.
As a minimally invasive procedure with just a tiny incision, renal denervation involves a short hospital stay and people benefit from a quick recovery with less pain.
An experienced provider can perform renal ablation safely and effectively with a low risk of complications. Rare complications of renal denervation include:
- Bradycardia (slow heart rate)
- Pseudoaneurysm, leaking in the artery that causes a bruise
- Renal artery stenosis (narrowing)
- Tears in the renal arteries
What to Expect During Renal Artery Denervation for Hypertension
Renal denervation takes around one hour. You receive anesthesia to keep you comfortable throughout the procedure. During renal denervation, an interventional cardiologist:
- 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
- Guides the catheter to the renal arteries in your kidneys
- Uses ultrasound or radiofrequency pulses to strategically damage the nerves in your renal arteries
Renal Denervation Recovery
Your provider gives you specific instructions to care for yourself after the procedure. Eventually, most patients reduce their blood pressure medication dosage or stop taking them completely.
Renal Denervation: The Penn Medicine Advantage
Renal denervation is just one example of how Penn Medicine is continually at the forefront of innovative care. When you choose our team, you benefit from:
- Access to clinical trials: Renal denervation is an investigational therapy that's not yet widely available. When you come to Penn, you have access to a wide range of treatment options tailored to your needs, including clinical trial therapies.
- Exclusive treatment options: Renal denervation may involve either ultrasound or radiofrequency pulses. We are one of only a few centers in the nation that offer both devices, expanding your treatment options.
- Collaborative care: We work closely with Penn Medicine's American Society of Hypertension (ASH)-certified Comprehensive Hypertension Center. This center is one of only a few dozen centers in the country with the ASH certification. This designation recognizes our considerable expertise in hypertension treatment.
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