Since the 1930s, it has been known that injury or ablation of the sympathetic nerves in or near the outer layers of the renal arteries can dramatically reduce high blood pressure. As far back as 1952, the use of alcohol (ethanol) has been reported for tissue ablation in animal experiments. Specifically, Berne [1] describes the use of “painting” alcohol on the outside of a dog's renal artery to produce nerve damage, leading to denervation.
Current technology to achieve renal denervation includes local heat-delivery using endovascular ablation catheters based on RF or ultrasound energy These devices include Symplicity™ (Medtronic, Dublin), EnligHTN™ (St. Jude Medical, St. Paul, MN), and Vessix™ system developed by Boston Scientific, Marlborough, MA. These devices are delivered into the renal artery in a procedure similar to an angioplasty or stent deployment in which a guiding catheter will facilitate the advancement of the ablation device into the...