[Transluminal dilatation and other nonsurgical catheter technics in the treatment of renovascular hypertension].

The development of percutaneous transluminal techniques has brought up new possibilities for causative treatment of renovascular hypertension. In renal artery stenosis transluminal angioplasty is meanwhile routinely applied; experience with angioplasty to date exceeds by far the number of 1000 published cases. Technical success is obtained in more than 90%. The clinical success in the therapy of reno-vascular hypertension is approximately 76% over all with nearly equal cure and improvement rates. In fibromuscular stenosis clinical success has been obtained in 95% with a cure rate of 56% and improval in 39%. The cure rate is particularly low in patients with atherosclerotic stenosis with 19%, however in 60% improvement has been obtained, resulting in clinical benefit in 79%. Results obtained by surgery seem to be superior to those of dilatation, especially with regard to cure rates. However, the differences are minor and are compensated by the evident advantages of transluminal dilatation, especially its easy application and lower risk. Thus, 8 years after its introduction in nephrology, transluminal dilatation is the therapy of choice in renal artery stenosis. Other nonoperative interventional techniques, including transcatheter aspiration and embolectomy, intraarterial thrombolysis, embolisation and modified angioplasty provided valuable alternatives to usual surgical therapy. However, experience with some of these procedures is still limited. The complication rate of transluminal angioplasty of 10-20%, necessitating surgery in nearly 5%, prohibits its uncritical use.