St. Jude Medical landed CE Mark approval of its EnligHTN Renal Denervation System. The device is designed to treat patients suffering from uncontrolled, drug-resistant hypertension.

Armed with an advanced generator that can deliver simultaneous ablations through the use of a multi-electrode catheter, the device can reduce total ablation times by four-fifths compared to first-generation systems. This represents a reduction in ablation times from 24 minutes down to four minutes.

Renal denervation is an ablation procedure that utilizes catheters to treat hypertension. By delivering radiofrequency energy through an ablation catheter, the device can create miniature scars along a patient's renal nerves.

Since renal nerves play a role in controlling blood pressure, creating these lesions can reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients. The device features a non-occlusive, unique basket design. This gives physicians the ability to deliver predictable treatments while allowing continuous kidney blood flow. The device, featuring four catheter electrodes, delivers 60-second ablations. Under most usage conditions, these ablations are performed twice in each of a patient's renal arteries.

"The next generation EnligHTN system offers physicians our proven multi-electrode catheter with a new intuitive, faster generator that quickly and effectively delivers consistent ablations with a significant reduction in procedure time," noted Frank J. Callaghan, president of Cardiovascular and Ablation Technologies at St. Jude Medical.