Renal denervation: ultima ratio or standard in treatment-resistant hypertension.

The term “ultima ratio” has multiple, though related, meanings. The motto “ultima ratio regum,” cast on the cannons of the French army of King Louis XIV, meant that war is the last argument of kings, that is, the one to be used after all diplomatic arguments have failed. Along similar lines, we propose that, given the current evidence, renal denervation should be used as a last resort, after state-ofthe-art drug treatment optimized at expert centers failed to control blood pressure.