For three decades Gael Lander fought for her life against the same high blood pressure that contributed to her father’s fatal heart attack and caused a series of debilitating strokes in her mother. Now Lander’s hard-to-treat hypertension is under control, the result of an experimental 20-minute procedure that cauterized nerves near her kidneys that control blood pressure. The nerves were seared using a catheter made by Medtronic Inc. (MDT) (MDT), the leader among dozens of companies developing similar products that may help re-energize the medical devices industry with a potentially multi-billion dollar new market.
