The treatment is called Symplicity Blood Pressure Procedure and it’s a part of the services provided by Cardiologist Dr. David Gonzalez at the Alpine cardiac catheterization lab.

Explaining his practice Dr. Gonzalez explained, “I’m an interventional cardiologist by specialty, but do a lot of general cardiology, which is how the practice was established here in the valley,” he said. “I work primarily out of the Alpine location, but actually both Afton and Alpine, and then we also do some outreach to a couple of places, Pinedale and Evanston.

Gonzalez explained the new service at Star Valley Health, “the Simplicity Blood Pressure Procedure, “Well, as most may or may not know, high blood pressure, hypertension, is ubiquitous and in this country among the adult population up to 40 to 50 percent of all adults have high blood pressure.” He continued, “A significant percentage of them, up to 75 percent, are undertreated.”

He further explained, “The American Heart Association guidelines have recently changed as to what is considered to be a normal blood pressure. Now 120 over 80 is considered to be a normal blood pressure, with the blood pressure stages of hypertension increasing by 10 millimeters on either side. Up from there, up to what is considered to be a crisis of blood pressure, at 180 over 120.”

Gonzalez added, “That being said, most people, or at least when high blood pressure is first diagnosed, and patients present to their primary care provider ordinarily, they are generally started on lifestyle changes, which can affect your blood pressure and help lower your blood pressure, such as weight loss, stopping smoking, exercising, eating less salt, things like that, which can affect your blood pressure.” He added, “Avoiding stimulants like nicotine is also very important. And with those things generally helping, they frequently don’t work by themselves alone and frequently medications are utilized.”

Gozalez explained, “Medications can be pretty effective. A lot of the times medications are effective and people don’t tolerate them. And then sometimes lots of medications are needed in order to control blood pressure.”

The cardiologist noted, “If those medications fail or if patients are unable to tolerate a lot of these medications, we have a new procedure available that’s called, Simplicity, which is a minimally invasive procedure method by which blood pressure can be controlled by using a special catheter that helps obliterate the nerves in the kidneys, which help control blood pressure.

He continued, “And while that might sound possibly harmful, it really is not, as these nerves become over-regulated and tend to work hard to constrict your blood vessels and worsen high blood pressure.”

Dr. Gonzales said, “And so it’s non-invasive. And how long does this procedure last? It’s not a long-term thing, it’s a procedure generally once it’s being done or becomes more and more commonplace, usually an hour or so to do. It’s done under some anesthetic because it can be a bit uncomfortable while it’s being performed.”

He further explained, it may not seem minimally invasive, but it’s really done through a tiny puncture through the femoral artery in the groin area. The device that’s utilized is a specialized catheter that is placed into multiple arteries that supply blood to the kidneys. And they use special contact points that generate heat.”

He added, “while it might sound like that might damage the arteries, it actually does not, as the blood cools these probes as they make contact with the wall of the artery and the heat is generated into the surrounding tissue where the nerves are present and are very, heat sensitive. So those nerves are permanently destroyed. The results look very,  very good, tied to initial results or at least immediate five to 10 millimeters mercury of a blood pressure drop on the top side of your systolic blood pressure that can over the course of time over a year to even drop more up to 10 to 20 millimeters.’

Gonzales pointed out, “And for every 10 millimeter drop in your blood pressure, there’s a significant drop in morbidity, meaning things like strokes, heart attacks, kidney failure and things like that, which are the general organ effects of long term, poorly controlled blood pressure”

The procedure is done one time. “And then you just kind of watch it from there.”

He concluded, “It’s something that’s been known and studied for probably a better part of a decade and was approved, Medicare approved, about two years ago. It’s just been a slow rollout.”

Star Valley Health staff has trained for the use of the procedure.

Dr. Gonzolez advised patients to initially work with their family physician.