Renal denervation: Not as easy as it looks

Renal sympathetic denervation with intravascular radiofrequency catheters in hypertensive patients is less effective than anticipated, owing to radio frequency energy being applied to a part of the renal artery where the nerves are at the greatest distance from the aortic lumen and to distortion of energy distribution and temperature gradients by regional tissue anatomical variations (Tzafriri et al., this issue).