What is Renal Artery Angioplasty/Stenting?
“Renal” refers to the kidneys. Your kidneys filter the blood to make urine and help control your blood pressure. The kidney gets less blood when there is narrowing of the blood vessel that supplies them, called the “renal artery”. The kidney responds by driving up the blood pressure so it gets more blood. This kind of high blood pressure does not respond well to medicines. The narrowed renal artery can be opened with a minimally invasive procedure called Renal Artery Angioplasty/Stenting. This procedure can lower blood pressure and reduce or eliminate the need for blood pressure medicines.
How is a Renal Artery Angioplasty/Stenting done?
You will be given medication to relax you. The skin on your wrist or top of the thigh will be cleaned and numbed. The clinician will slide a small tube through a pinhole in the skin into a blood vessel. X-rays and dye will guide them as they move the tube to the narrowed renal artery. They will use small balloons to open the artery. They may leave behind a “stent,” a mesh metal tube to keep the renal artery open.
Renal Artery Angioplasty/Stenting
1. After numbing the skin, the clinician slides a small tube into the blood vessel at the top of the thigh or wrist.
2. They use x-rays to guide the tube to the renal artery. They open the artery with a balloon. They may need to put a mesh metal tube called a stent to keep it open.
3. After, they remove the tube and place a bandage over the pinhole in the skin.
What are the risks?
13 in 100 people experience temporary minor bleeding/bruising.
Major complications are very rare but include the following:
damage to the blood vessels
damage to the kidneys
blocking blood vessels in the kidneys or other parts of the body with plaque or blood clot
What are the alternatives?
Your treatment options depend on your preferences, overall health, and unique conditions.
Alternative 1 Not doing a procedure and treating your blood pressure with medicines. This should be tried first.
Alternative 2 Renal artery denervation. This is a different minimally invasive procedure that can help high blood pressure when there is no or mild narrowing of the arteries. It involves using energy to destroy some of the nerves around the kidney arteries.
Alternative 3 Surgery to bypass or fix the blocked arteries. Surgery tends to last longer but has more risk of complications and longer recovery.