Hypertension in a child relieved by bilateral renal arterioplasty

Hypertensive diseases are of two general types: essential or idiopathic, and secondary. Although not common during childhood, abnormal blood pressure has a special significance when it does occur because it is invariably of the secondary type. Among the causes of secondary hypertension are renovascular lesions with the associated Goldblatt phenomenon. Approximately seventeen cases are recorded in the literature of such renal artery abnormality in children associated with hypertension. An instance of bilateral renal artery stenosis resulting in extreme hypertension in a five year old girl is presented. The hypertension was relieved in this patient by surgical restoration of normal renal blood flow.