IS CATHETER-BASED RENAL DENERVATION DEAD IN THE WATER?

Recent Study Raises Questions About the Future of RDN

In the latest edition of MedicalExpo’s quarterly e-magazine we have a special feature on catheter-based renal denervation. Renal denervation (RDN) is a minimally invasive, catheter-based procedure that uses radiofrequency ablation to treat uncontrolled hypertension. Although a relatively new procedure, RDN has gained much traction in recent years, to the point that some consider it revolutionary.

However, the results of the Symplicity HTN-3 study which were published in January 2014, put a large spanner in the works. The rigorous clinical study, designed for FDA approval for Medtronic’s Symplicity RDN system, showed “a non-significant difference in blood pressure reduction between the sham-procedure control group and those who had received active RDN.” These findings have thrown open the debate on the efficacy of RDN, and whether the procedure has a viable future!