[Renovascular hypertension: surgery, dilatation or drugs?].

The effect of various therapeutic procedures (surgery, percutaneous transluminal dilatation and antihypertensive drugs) was analyzed in 161 patients with renovascular hypertension. The results show that each of the three methods effectively lowers blood pressure. However, marked differences in pretreatment clinical and laboratory data among the three groups were observed, which were most probably caused by different selection criteria before submitting the patient to a given therapeutic regime. The findings also demonstrate that, on the basis of the present analysis, a direct comparison between surgery, dilatation and medical therapy is not possible.