Methods and Apparatus for Renal Neuromodulation

A method for renal neuromodulation, the method comprising:

• positioning a spiral element of a catheter at an extra-arterial location within a human patient and adjacent to neural fibers innervating a kidney of the patient;
• transforming the spiral element from a low-profile delivery configuration to an expanded treatment configuration,
• wherein, in the treatment configuration, the spiral element is sized and shaped to place of plurality of individual, discrete electrodes arranged thereabout in apposition with target tissue at or near the neural fibers;
• and
• ablating the neural fibers innervating the kidney via radio frequency (RF) energy from the electrodes.

A method for treatment of a hypertensive human patient, the method comprising:

• extravascularly positioning a pre-shaped distal segment of a treatment device proximate renal nerves of the patient, wherein the pre-shaped distal segment comprises a plurality of energy delivery elements;
• and
• delivering an energy field via the energy delivery elements to disrupt neural traffic along the renal nerves,
• wherein delivering the energy field results in a therapeutically beneficial reduction in blood pressure of the patient.