‘I’ve Cut Down On My Pills’: Mater Dei Hospital Launches Procedure To Help Reverse High Blood Pressure
A new procedure at Mater Dei Hospital is helping people with longstanding blood pressure issues finally live free of the ailment.
The procedure, known as Renal Denervation, sees doctors burn off nerves in arteries of the kidneys to decrease a patient’s blood pressure with immediate effect.
It has been launched following three successful pilots, all of whom have some amazing results to show for it.
Speaking with TVM, 68-year-old Dorothy Mifsud said that she had been struggling with high blood pressure for many years, but after having the intervention done, her blood pressure came down from the first day.
“I have to say that my blood pressures returned to normal from the day after [the procedure],” she told TVM. “In fact, I have started to cut down on my pills. It was a success.”
Renal Denervation is the ‘burning’ of nerves in the arteries of our fluid-regulating organ – the kidney. It sounds complicated, though patients having the procedure can get it done and go home on the very same day.
The results are not only instant, but according to Mater Dei Hospital’s Head of Cardiology, Robert Xuereb, patients will continue to benefit from it throughout their life because their blood pressure will continue to remain under control.
A quarter of men and women in Malta suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension), according to statistics from the department of health.
It has often been called a ‘silent killer’ because the condition often doesn’t have any other symptoms leading one to seek a medical opinion. Having high blood pressure, however, was estimated by the WHO to cause 7.5 million deaths a year.
The fact that hypertension is so insidiously harmful has led many major healthcare establishments to recommend that all adults over 18 years check their blood pressures as part of a routine medical at least once annually.
Ideally, it should be lower than 130/80 mmHg.
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