Earlier this year the only large, well-designed trial of renal denervation– the once highly-promising catheter-based technology that was widely expected to “cure” difficult cases of resistant hypertension– failed spectacularly. Many hypertension experts believe that ultimately the technique will prove to be beneficial, but after the failure of Simplicity HTN-3 it is clear that there’s a great deal of research that needs to be performed to find out just how– or if– this novel technology should be used.
In the US this does not present a problem. The FDA has not approved renal denervation so it can only be used in a research setting. But that is not the case in Europe, where the device is available due to lower standards for device approval.
Right now Europe’s largest interventional cardiology meeting, Euro PCR, is underway in Paris. Surprisingly– or perhaps not– renal denervation is still being heavily promoted in Europe. Here is the evidence: a series of tweets by @Jeddacath, an interventional cardiologist who trained at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston and who is attending the meeting.
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