Percutaneous treatment of renovascular hypertension.

Percutaneous transluminal dilatation of a right sided fibrous renal artery stenosis was performed in a 5-year-old boy with severe hypertension. Biochemical and hemodynamic activity of the renal artery stenosis was demonstrated by measurement of renal venous renin concentration and of pre- and poststenotic blood pressure. Hypertension disappeared within 3 weeks and the renin values became normal. The method is less traumatic than operative revascularization and may be an alternative procedure to vascular surgery in the treatment of renovascular hypertension in childhood.