Updated ESH Guidelines for Hypertension boost UK interest in renal denervation

Updated European Society of Hypertension (ESH) guidelines, highlighting the role of renal denervation (RDN) as part of the hypertension care pathway, are likely to boost interest in RDN in the UK.

The updated guidelines were announced at the ESH 32^nd Annual Meeting and have now been published in the Journal of Hypertension. The International Society of Hypertension (ISH) and the European Renal Association (ERA) have also endorsed the updated guidelines. This marks a turning point for RDN as a hypertension treatment and supports its use as a safe and effective complementary treatment option in reducing blood pressure for patients, in addition to medications and lifestyle changes.

There has been growing UK interest in RDN with specialist centres such as Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust moving ahead with establishing an RDN service as part of Medtronic’s global registry, GSR DEFINE.

Professor Bryan Williams former chair of the European Council in Hypertension, President of the International Society of Hypertension, and chair of medicine at University College London (UCL) said: “We now have a lot more data and evidence to support the fact that RDN lowers blood pressure in patients and as a consequence the updated ESH guidelines suggest that RDN can be used particular with patients where other treatment options have been exhausted, or where patients are not keen on continuing with their existing drug treatments.”

The new ESH guidelines follow a series of favorable position papers and consensus statements from the ESH (released 2021), and other key societies echoing a similar sentiment, including the recent European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) consensus statement.

“These new clinical guidelines in Europe reinforce the safety and effectiveness of RDN as a third pillar for difficult to control hypertension – along with lifestyle changes and medication,” said Jason Weidman, senior vice president and president of the Coronary and Renal Denervation business at Medtronic. “This is a positive step forward for the Symplicity Blood Pressure Procedure and underscores the desire of the clinical community to include new treatment options to improve hypertension control rates.”

Finally, these guidelines, as well as recent position papers, have been made possible by the large amount of clinical evidence that has been generated with the Medtronic Symplicity Blood Pressure Procedure. The Medtronic RDN program is backed by experience in more than 25,000 patients treated globally. It has also been studied in more than 4,000 patients in the presence and absence of medication, and in patients with high baseline cardiovascular risk, or with comorbidities.

Medtronic looks forward to continuing to advance the field of RDN through our continued clinical programs with the SPYRAL AFFIRM and GSR-DEFINE studies, as well as external research programs, and through planned advances in technology.

Approved for commercial use in more than 60 countries around the world, the Symplicity Spyral Renal Denervation System is currently limited to investigational use in the U.S., Japan and Canada.