Question:
Can high B/P postpone surgery? mine168/98-B/P ONLY GOES UP WHEN NERVOUS

   — Lorraine C. (posted on February 21, 2003)

February 21, 2003
what is a normal blood pressure for you? Do you have a history of high blood pressure? They can give you several medication to help your blood pressure prior to surgery, I would call and ask my Dr. prior to surgery, because he could give you something to take prior to surgery. Call them and let them no. Hope things go good for you. Wendy
   — Wendy T.

February 21, 2003
I think it depends on the surgeon. I have high BP too and like you mine goes way up when I'm nervous, in fact right before surgery mine went all the way up to 200/90 and he still went ahead with surgery. Good luck!
   — Kris T.

February 21, 2003
Usually once you get your anesthesia and are under, your blood pressure drops anyway. That's one reason why they give you so much IV fluid during surgery.
   — Teri W.

February 22, 2003
Unless your blood pressure spikes into "stroke range" your surgery will go on. Once you are under anesthesia, your blood pressure will likely go down, and they have plenty of meds they can use to keep your blood pressure up or down during surgery. Many obese people have elevated blood pressure, and that's some of the reason to undergo surgery - to get it back to normal. I think you will be fine! Good luck!
   — koogy

February 23, 2003
My surgeon was aware of my "white coat" blood pressure....see anyone in a medical white coat and my BP goes up. At check-in for surgery my BP was 215/95 when it is normally about 140/72. The surgeon ran late due to problems in surgery before mine so the longer I sat the higher it went. Anesthesiologist was amazed. They kept pumping me full of sedatives but my arms and legs were still tapping and banging away. Put on my CD headset and they wheeled me into surgery. Normally, I'm a part of the operating room procedure....moving from gurney to operating table, counting backwards from 100, etc. Don't remember any of that. They finally just knocked me out big time. Because the BP was so high, surgeon pumped 10 bags of fluid into me during surgery. Each bag weighed 2 pounds so I actually came off the operating table 20 pounds heavier than getting on it. Bottom line....nervous HP was not a detterent to the surgery.
   — katie-mae