Renal artery stent placement: utility in lesions difficult to treat with balloon angioplasty.

OBJECTIVES: We assessed the safety and efficacy of stent placement in patients with poorly controlled hypertension and renal artery stenoses, which are difficult to treat with balloon angioplasty alone.

BACKGROUND: Preliminary experience with stent placement suggests improved results over balloon angioplasty alone in patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis.

METHODS: Balloon-expandable stents were placed in 100 consecutive patients (133 renal arteries) with hypertension and renal artery stenosis. Sixty-seven of the patients had unilateral renal artery stenosis treated and 33 had bilateral renal artery stenoses treated with stents placed in both renal arteries.

RESULTS: Angiographic success, as determined by quantitative angiography, was obtained in 132 (99%) of 133 lesions. Early clinical success was achieved in 76% of the patients. Six months after stent placement, the systolic blood pressure was reduced from 173 +/- 25 to 147 +/- 23 mm Hg (p < 0.001); the diastolic pressure from 88 +/- 17 to 76 +/- 12 mm Hg (p < 0.001); and the mean number of antihypertensive medications per patient from 2.6 +/- 1 to 2.0 +/- 0.9 (p < 0.001). Angiographic follow-up at a mean of 8.7 +/- 5.0 months in 67 patients revealed restenosis (>50% diameter narrowing) in 15 (19%) of 80 stented vessels.

CONCLUSIONS: Renal artery stenting is an effective treatment for renovascular hypertension, with a low angiographic restenosis rate. Stent placement appears to be a very attractive therapy in patients with lesions difficult to treat with balloon angioplasty such as renal aorto-ostial lesions and restenotic lesions, as well as after a suboptimal balloon angioplasty result.