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Renal denervation has been developed as a means to treat hypertensive patients who are resistant to antihypertensive drugs. This technique involves destroying the renal autonomic nerve fibres, leading to a decrease in afferent and efferent nerve traffic. As a consequence, total sympathetic activity decreases and the blood pressure falls. After preliminary data and a proof-of-principle study had shown beneficial effects, the technique was implemented on a large scale without much further research. Recently, though, a randomized trial comparing true renal denervation with a mock procedure, could not demonstrate a measurable effect of renal denervation on blood pressure. This indicates that proper evaluation, including evaluation of devices, is always necessary. Specialists with little experience in treating hypertension should refrain from applying this technique.

Conflict of interest and financial support: an ICMJE form provided by the author is available online along with the full text of this article.