Most people think that they will not be able to have any surgery if their blood pressure is high. This is not true as elevated blood pressure is almost never a reason to delay or cancel surgery. In fact in some cases, very high blood pressure before surgery cannot be avoided and the purpose of surgery itself is to correct its cause.

You Can Have Surgery if You Have High Blood Pressure

During surgery, your vital signs which include heart rate, breathing pattern and blood pressure are monitored by the anaesthesiologist who has knowledge about what value each vital sign should have keeping in mind your medical condition and the type of surgery being performed. If any of the vital signs are not according to required values, then he will use intravenous drugs to correct them. These drugs act fast and are extremely effective.

Since surgery can be safely delayed in elective procedures like cosmetic or vision corrective surgeries, a doctor may try to bring your blood pressure to as normal a range as possible. This approach is medically appropriate in these types of surgeries as it can reduce the risk of certain surgical complications.

For other types of surgeries such as a cardiovascular one, it is imperative that you keep your blood pressure at a normal level after the surgery as it can lead to post-surgical complications including aneurism or rupture.

Even though an increased blood pressure will not stop the surgeon from going ahead with your planned surgery, it is better to keep your blood pressure under check all the time. There are several ways to control it. Some are natural while others involve the use of drugs.

The first thing that most doctors stress on is maintaining a healthy diet. For hypertensive patients, a healthy diet is low in sodium and fats. This means that they should avoid red meat. They should eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

With diet, doctors will also prescribe medications such as beta-blockers, diuretics and calcium channel blockers. Your heart rate is lowered by beta-blockers while excess fluid and sodium is eliminated from the body by diuretics. Calcium channel blockers work in the manner similar to beta-blockers and relieve stress on the heart. The best medication for you can only be decided by your doctor. Besides this, you will also be advised to exercise. Jogging or swimming a few times a week is very beneficial for lowering blood pressure.

Conclusively, high blood pressure will not stop you from having a surgery

but it is ideal to keep it under control as much as possible with diet, medication and exercise.

Your Comments

Click here to add a comment

Name:


Location:


Email:


Comment:




Please enter the Captcha code:

There are no comments to display