Abstract

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a common complication of renal dialysis and is inadequately controlled in approximately one-third of patients. Intravascular renal denervation is an option to control sympathetic overdrive and decrease blood pressure. Four renal dialysis patients are presented with uncontrolled hypertension who were treated with intravascular renal denervation.

CASE REPORT: In a renal dialysis unit, patients were screened for therapy-resistant hypertension, which was defined as an outpatient blood pressure >160/100 mmHg and a blood pressure by interdialytic ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) >130/80 mmHg. Four patients were identified with a mean ABPM of 175/95 mmHg. The four patients included a 24-year-old man with neurogenic bladder undergoing hemodialysis; a 55-year-old woman with a history of type 1 diabetes mellitus undergoing peritoneal dialysis; a 56-year-old woman with a history of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) undergoing peritoneal dialysis; and a 72-year-old man with a history of ADPKD undergoing hemodialysis Following intravascular renal denervation, one patient had antihypertensive medicines withdrawn at 12 months, and he remained normotensive up to renal transplantation at 24 months. In two patients, ABPM did not decrease until renal transplantation was performed. The fourth patient was not a candidate for renal transplantation, and he was also a non-responder for intravascular renal denervation. None of the patients experienced hypotension or other adverse events following intravascular renal denervation.

CONCLUSIONS: A case series of four patients showed that, for some patients who have unresponsive hypertension while on renal dialysis, intravascular renal denervation is a safe procedure.

Keywords: Autonomic Denervation, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory, Dialysis, Hypertension, Kidney Transplantation, Patient safety