Published November 9, 2022
Fewer additional medications are needed for hypertension patients who undergo RDN
Renal denervation (RDN) – a minimally invasive procedure during which a catheter is placed in the renal artery and radiofrequency energy is applied to each of the main arteries leading to the kidneys – has been found to reduce blood pressure at two months among treatment-resistant hypertension patients.
That finding stemmed from the ReCor Medical Paradise System in Clinical Hypertension (RADIANCE-HTN TRIO) trial which, from March 2016 to March 2020, enrolled patients whose blood pressure remained at 135/85 mm Hg or higher after 1 to 3 antihypertensive medications. Half the patients in the trial underwent the RDN procedure, and the other half had a sham procedure (an intervention that omits the step thought to be therapeutically necessary).
James Stephen Jenkins, MD, FACC, FSCAI, FSVM, Section Head of Interventional Cardiology and Director of Interventional Cardiology Research at the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute at Ochsner Medical Center, was part of the research team studying efficacy and safety of RDN in RADIANCE-HTN TRIO patients.
Follow-up analysis demonstrated that RDN has a lasting blood pressure-lowering effect across a broad spectrum of patients, including those with mild hypertension to those with more severe or treatment-resistant hypertension.
