The Germans Trias Hospital of Badalona (Barcelonès Nord) has taken another step in its capacity and leadership throughout the State in terms of treating one of the most prevalent diseases in the world: high blood pressure, which affects half or more of the population over 50 years of age.
And this Wednesday he successfully performed the first procedure to address this pathology with a pioneering technique: placing on the patient - a 74-year-old man - a device that, through the emission of ultrasound, modulates the activity of the nervous system. sympathetic, one of those responsible for regulating blood pressure.
Specifically, this device is part of the renal denervation technique, in which the Hospital's Interventional Cardiology Unit is a reference at the national and international level. It is minimally invasive for patients, has a minimal risk of complications and manages to reduce sympathetic nervous activity and help control blood pressure.
In fact, together with the Arterial Hypertension Unit of the Nephrology Service and the Anesthesiology Service, more than a decade ago this Unit started a program that has already treated, with very good results, more than sixty patients. “The first were resistant to the usual medication and remained hypertensive, with systolic blood pressures that sometimes reached 200 mm Hg. Once operated on, about 90% greatly reduced this pressure until reaching, in many cases, normal levels,” explains Oriol Rodríguez, cardiologist at the Hemodynamics and Interventional Cardiology Unit at Germans Trias.
Until now, in all these patients the procedure consisted of placing endovascular catheters that, through radiofrequency, emit energy that partially cancels the nerve fibers that connect the kidneys with the central nervous system. But the leap forward that is being made now is to do it through an endovascular balloon that emits ultrasounds that “act in 360 degrees.”
The new ultrasound device is as safe as the radiofrequency device but, in addition, it will allow more patients who need to undergo these treatments to be treated, since the use and success of radiofrequency is sometimes limited in some people by the anatomy itself. the renal artery.
On the other hand, the European Society of Hypertension (SEH) has recently highlighted the importance of the renal denervation technique as key to the treatment and control of resistant hypertension, together with medication and adoption of healthy lifestyles. It has done so with the publication, this summer, of new clinical guidelines that strengthen the relevance of this procedure, due to its safety and effectiveness.
The Germans Trias Hospital is the center in the State that treats the most patients with hypertension with the renal denervation technique, reserved for people whose pressure cannot be controlled pharmacologically.
High blood pressure is a chronic disease that can cause different types of lesions in the arteries and increases the risk of suffering from diseases of the circulatory system, such as heart attack, stroke, kidney disease or impaired circulation in the legs. In fact, it is the greatest cardiovascular risk factor.
"We often talk about high blood pressure as the 'silent disease that kills', because it is one of the most frequent cardiovascular risk factors," especially in people over 60 years of age, explains Maribel Troya, nephrologist and head of the Hypertension Unit. artery of the Nephrology Service of the Hospital. Troya highlights the importance of blood pressure control to avoid cardiovascular complications and maintain a good quality of life, but she remembers that some patients are not enough with a healthy lifestyle and medication. Therefore, for more than 10 years "we have been evaluating which ones can benefit from this technique, because a patient with hypertension with better blood pressure control will live longer and better than one who does not have it," she concludes.
