System and method for thermal treatment of hypertension, hypotension or aneurysm

1. A system for treating a patient with general hypertension by increasing a blood flow in the renal artery, the system comprising:

a hypertension treatment device adapted to:

have at least one surface of the device placed on the outside of the renal artery to increase the blood flow in the patient's renal region, wherein said surface comprises a heating surface able to heat said renal artery to dilate said renal artery and thereby increase the blood flow distal to said dilated renal artery, causing the kidney to reduce the general blood pressure and thereby treat general hypertension, and to

be used in combination with a constriction device, when thermally stimulating the wall portion of the blood vessel;

the system further comprising:

a control device adapted to control the hypertension treatment device to heat the wall portion of the renal artery to cause expansion thereof and control the temperature of said heating surface based on the patient's general blood pressure, to:

increase the temperature for increasing the dilation of said renal artery and thereby control the lowering of the patient's general blood pressure, or

decrease the temperature for reducing the dilation to thereby control the increasing of the patient's general blood pressure,

wherein the control device comprises an implantable internal control unit adapted to, in response to signals from a sensor, directly control the hypertension device over time, in accordance with an activity schedule program, and to directly control the constriction device, wherein the sensor is adapted to sense at least the temperature of the heating surface and the general blood pressure of the patient.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the temperature of said heating surface is controlled by the internal control unit.

3. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a power supply and electronic circuitry adapted to power the heating surface.

4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein said power supply is a rechargeable power supply.

5. The system according to claim 4 further comprising a wireless energy transmitter for wireless charging of the power supply from outside the patient's body.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the heating surface comprises an electronic element adapted to cool a second surface.

7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the electronic element is a peltier element.

8. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one of the following: at least one push button with a switch implantable in the patient for manually and non-invasively controlling the device, and a wireless remote control for non-invasively controlling the device.

9. The system according to claim 1 further comprising a wireless energy transmitter for non-invasively energizing implantable energy consuming components of the device with wireless energy.

10. The system according to claim 9 , further comprising an energy-transforming device for transforming the wireless energy transmitted by the energy transmission transmitter from a first form into a different form of energy, wherein the energy-transforming device is adapted to perform at least one of the following: a) directly power implantable energy consuming components of the device with the different form of energy, and b) with the system further comprising, an implantable source of energy for powering implantable energy consuming components of the device, chargeable by the wireless energy, power the implantable energy source with the different form of energy, as the energy-transforming device transforms the first form of energy transmitted by the energy transmitter into the different form of energy.

11. The system according to claim 1 further comprising a wireless remote control adapted to send a wireless control signal, and wherein the signal comprises a frequency, amplitude, or phase modulated signal or a combination thereof.

12. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the control device comprises an external control unit intended to be outside the patient's body.

13. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the internal control unit is adapted to be programmable by an external control unit.

14. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising an operation device for reversible operating the constriction device, the operation device comprising at least one of:

at least one motor adapted to be operable to perform a reversible function and comprising a servo system designed to transfer a weak force acting on a moving element having a long stroke into a strong force acting on another moving element having a short stroke, and

at least one reservoir adapted to hold hydraulic fluid and wherein the operation device is adapted to distribute hydraulic fluid from the reservoir to expand a cavity in the hydraulic constriction device, and reversibly distribute hydraulic fluid from the cavity to the reservoir.

15. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the constriction device is one of a mechanical device and a hydraulic device.

16. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor is at least one of: a pressure sensor, a strain sensor, a flow sensor, a spectro-photometrical sensor, and a sensor for sensing the distribution of the stimulation of the blood vessel.

17. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the constriction device comprises a contraction element operated by a bellows.

18. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the constriction device comprises at least two clamping elements.

19. The system according to claim 18 , wherein the clamping elements are slidable back and forth relative to the blood vessel.

20. The system according to claim 18 , wherein the clamping elements are spring loaded.