EBOLI – Another success of Interventional Cardiology in the “Maria Santissima Addolorata di Eboli” Hospital: renal denervation in a 35-year-old hypertensive man of Nigerian origin: a very rare case internationally. With the sequencing of the HUMAN GENOME, at the beginning of this millennium, we understood that the genetic heritage (20-25 thousand genes) is “unique” and does not change depending on the color of the skin: there is only one “human race”! There remain, as is evident, different conditions and ways of life which, combined with the eating habits of each population, determine, for example, a metabolism of table salt that is not the same for everyone and this “different assimilation of salt” could explain the greater o lower frequency of some forms of hypertension in subjects of African origin: studies have been started and are still underway on African-American citizens in some prestigious Research Centers and Universities in the United States.
The fact is that due to problems linked to some receptors of the renin/angiotensin system in some hypertensive patients of African origin, drugs to treat severe hypertension have little effectiveness with a notable increase in the possibility of heart attacks and strokes… and this regardless of age.
The hypertensive patient treated in the Eboli hospital is 35 years old, Nigerian and has lived and worked for decades in the Eboli area where there are over 4 thousand non-EU citizens officially registered and the same number are “estimated” but not registered. Considering the vastness of the area that revolves around the Eboli Hospital (with thousands of other “non-Italians” in the neighboring municipalities) it is easy to understand how the various specialist operational units operating there are increasingly acquiring transnational “clinical expertise”, guaranteeing assistance high level healthcare and care for ALL as dictated by Art 32 of our Constitution and as implemented by law 833 of 1978 establishing the National Health Service.
The young Nigerian, unfortunately suffering from SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus), now has “controlled” blood pressure values and – for his primary pathology – continues to undergo dialysis followed by Dr. Annalisa Gonnella at the U.O. Nephrology Complex of the Eboli Hospital directed by Dr. Giuseppe Gigliotti.
“Renal denervation” consists of the thermal treatment (in other words the “sympathetic” nerve endings that support hypertension are “burned”) produced by a “probe” that enters the groin and reaches the renal arteries and “discharges” ultrasound or radio frequencies … it could be defined as a sort of “thermoablation”.
The operation, successfully completed in the Ebolitana Complex Cardiology Unit, directed by Dr. Angelo Catalano who discussed the “particularities of the case” with Italian and foreign colleagues, was performed by interventional cardiologists Emanuele De Vita and Giuseppe Bottiglieri; considering the patient’s condition, particular caution was observed in the anesthesia treatment by the team of Dr. Fernando Chiumiento who directs the Anesthesiology and Resuscitation Unit of the Eboli Hospital.
The procedure practiced on the Nigerian patient (with very few similar experiences reported in the international scientific literature) constitutes a very significant precedent for other possible cases that could come to the attention of the specialists of the Eboli Hospital, precisely in consideration of the vast multi-ethnic composition of the population residing in the Sele Plain and Valley.
The young Nigerian, unfortunately suffering from SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus), now has “controlled” blood pressure values and – for his primary pathology – continues to undergo dialysis followed by Dr. Annalisa Gonnella at the U.O. Nephrology Complex of the Eboli Hospital directed by Dr. Giuseppe Gigliotti.
The procedure practiced on the Nigerian patient (with very few similar experiences reported in the international scientific literature) constitutes a very significant precedent for other possible cases that could come to the attention of the specialists of the Eboli Hospital, precisely in consideration of the vast multi-ethnic composition of the population residing in the Sele Plain and Valley.
