Further to the report in The Daily Telegraph on 18 November 2010 we can confirm that an operation to bring high blood pressure under control has been carried out at The Harley Street Clinic in London, the first such procedure to be completed in the private sector.
High blood pressure or hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular death worldwide. In the UK around a third of men and women suffer from it – around 15 million people.
However only 20 per cent of those with hypertension have their blood pressure adequately treated and controlled, leaving the rest at increased risk of heart attack, stroke or kidney failure.
In many individuals, high blood pressure is initiated and/or maintained by faulty signals between the brain and the kidneys which are transmitted by the renal nerves. These nerves lie in the wall
of the arteries that supply the kidneys and seem to play a key role in regulating blood pressure, although it's not fully understood how.
The new procedure, called Renal Denervation, helps to control high blood pressure (a reading of 140/90 mm Hg or higher) by deactivating the nerves that lie in the wall of the renal artery thus interrupting the abnormal signals between the brain and kidneys which keep blood pressure high.
Dr Mel Lobo, Consultant Physician and Clinical Hypertension Specialist, whose team carried out the operation at the Harley Street Clinic, explains: "This is not a cure for hypertension but in certain patients whose blood pressure remains difficult to control even after taking medication, it can lead to a significant reduction in blood pressure readings – by an average of 30 points.
"For these patients, it means they may be able to come off some of their medication which can have nasty side-effects," he said.
"Medically, we are very excited about the procedure because it treats the underlying physiology of high blood pressure," said Dr Lobo.