Endovascular therapy of renal artery stenosis: where do we stand today?

Angioplasty and stent therapy for stenoses of the renal artery have long been part of the everyday life of interventional radiologists. Newer studies, however, challenge the clinical significance of the method. A decisive advantage of endovascular techniques for the treatment of arterial hypertension as opposed to therapy with modern antihypertensives could not be proven in individual randomized studies, even though blood pressure control was observed to be facilitated by PTA (percutaneous transluminal angioplasty). Renal function often did not show any sustainable improvement following elimination of the renal artery stenosis. However, progression of kidney insufficiency could be slowed down. There is still no general justification from the existing data for the treatment of incidental stenoses. Many questions remain open regarding the technique. Whereas fibromuscular dysplasia can be treated by balloon angioplasty as a general rule, a metallic endoprosthesis must often be used for atherosclerotic stenoses. The outstanding morphologic results of stent therapy in the short and medium term course are often simply used to justify primary stent implantation in ostial stenoses.