UNILATERAL RENAL DISEASE AS A CAUSE OF HYPERTENSION: ITS DETECTION BY URETERAL CATHETERIZATION STUDIES

Abstract

It has been amply demonstrated experimentally that renal ischemia can result in hypertension^1-3 and that, in man, reduced arterial flow to one kidney may produce a clinical picture indistinguishable at the bedside from so-called "essential" hypertension.^4-7 Following Butler's initial observations in 1937 of the relief of hypertension in a child after the removal of a diseased kidney,⁸ many reports appeared on the results of nephrectomy for hypertension. Up to 1954 the percentage of "cures" in any sizable series of cases was remarkably low, and rarely did more than 20% of operations provide the desired fall in blood pressure.^9-11 The search