Revolutionary renal therapy shows promising results for chronic hypertension patients in Yashoda Hospitals in Hyderabad

The novel renal therapy targets the overactive nerves around the kidneys, which play an important role in regulating blood pressure levels

Hyderabad: A novel renal therapy for treating patients with chronic hypertension, especially those who consistently struggle to control their blood pressure despite taking multiple drugs, being implemented on a few select patients in Hyderabad, has started to yield encouraging results.

Senior interventional cardiologist and clinical director, Yashoda Hospitals Hitec City, Dr V Rajasekhar, who is implementing ‘Renal Denervation Therapy’ on few patients, said that the unique therapy has the potential to become a standard mode of treatment among patients who struggle with resistant hypertension.

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“Despite taking medications, there are a significant number of patients who struggle to control their blood pressure, making them vulnerable to cardiovascular events, strokes etc. For such patients, the denervation therapy is yielding good results. In fact, a patient of ours who was on three hypertension medicines was administered with this therapy with good results,” Dr Rajasekhar told Telangana Today.

Essentially, the therapy targets the overactive nerves around the kidneys, which play an important role in regulating blood pressure levels, and once their hyperactivity is reduced, the blood pressure drops instantly.

It is a minimally invasive process and does not involve a major surgery. Such procedures are carried by interventional cardiologists who utilize catheter to send RF (heat) energy to the renal arteries, the blood vessels supplying blood to the kidneys. The heart or energy ablates renal nerves without damaging the arteries, thus reducing the nerve activity, leading to drop in BP.

“We access the artery in the right groin and then put a catheter at the mouth of the artery that supplies blood to the kidney. Through this, we pass the ablation catheter to deliver RF at designated points. In a single session, we do ablations in all the major branches of the renal arteries of both the sides. It’s a one-time procedure,” Dr Rajasekhar explains.

The therapy has the potential to reduce blood pressure to manageable limits in just one single sitting. “In some patients, if BP comes under control, then the medicines can be reduced. There will be a few patients, who after receiving this therapy, might completely stop taking hypertension drugs,” he said.

A specially designed catheter known as Simplicity Spyral Catheter, which has recently received regulatory approval in India, has made it possible for cardiologists to achieve good results through this therapy.

“Recent results have shown that by employing a new modified catheter, we can achieve good results. This special catheter was recently approved by Drug Controller General of India (DCGI),” Dr Rajasekhar adds.

Important points:

1. Novel renal denervation therapy gives hope to chronic BP patients
2. Nerves around kidneys play an important role in regulating blood pressure
3. Denervation therapy targets these overactive nerves around kidneys
4. Therapy reduces nerve activity leading to a significant drop in BP levels
5. Patients who undergo this therapy could eventually reduce their BP drugs
6. A few patients could even stop using BP control drugs permanently
7. The therapy is minimally invasive with tiny incision in groin