title: The impact of renal sympathetic denervation on cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias: A systematic review of the literature.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Increased central sympathetic activity has a central role in the pathophysiology of cardiac arrhythmias. Despite the recently published negative results regarding the impact of renal sympathetic denervation (RDN) on resistant hypertension treatment, the beneficial effects of this intervention on cardiac arrhythmias seems to be promising. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the existing data regarding the impact of RDN on atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.
  
  
  METHODS
  We systematically searched MEDLINE/PubMed database until January 2016 by using the algorithm "renal denervation AND (arrhythmias OR atrial OR ventricular)" without limitations. Additionally, the reference lists of the included studies and the relevant review studies were also manually searched.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 467 studies yielded from the initial search, 34 were finally included in the systematic review (15 human studies, 18 animal studies and 1 study with both experimental and clinical data). The critical analysis of data from both human and animal studies indicates that RDN can modulate atrial and ventricular electrophysiological properties and exerts favorable effects in the development and recurrence of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this systematic review we showed that RDN reduces the burden of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias in various experimental and clinical settings. Appropriately designed randomized sham controlled trials are needed in order to elucidate the exact impact of RDN on arrhythmia management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital of Athens "Elpis", Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bazoukis
authors.affiliation: First Department of Cardiology, University of Ioannina, Medical School, Ioannina, Greece. Electronic address: p.korantzopoulos@yahoo.gr.
authors.forename: Panagiotis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Korantzopoulos
authors.affiliation: First Department of Cardiology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Hippokration General Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Costas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tsioufis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000294:innervation* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods; D013562:Sympathectomy / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*
keywords: Atrial arrhythmias; Cardiac arrhythmias; Renal denervation; Resistant hypertension; Ventricular arrhythmias