Hattiesburg Clinic, FGH to participate in new study | News

HATTIESBURG, MS (WDAM)- Hattiesburg Clinic and Forrest General Hospital are participating in a landmark national study which will test a new way to treat high blood pressure. The SYMPLICITY HTN-3 Trial will evaluate the efficiency of a radiofrequency catheter to treat patients with resistant hypertension.

Forrest General Hospital and Hattiesburg Clinic are among just 60 institutions nationwide that were chosen to be a part of the study.

Qualified patients are already being recruited for the trial.   

"There are some nerves in the blood vessels going to the kidney that, if they are overactive, can make blood pressure very high," said Dr. Bryan Batson, director of the Hypertension Center at Hattiesburg Clinic. "And this procedure is similar to a heart catheterization, in that you go in through the leg and go into those arteries going to the kidney and burn the nerves, essentially, that are causing the problem with the high blood pressure," Batson said.

Two other successful studies have been done in Europe and Australia.

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