Surgery and high blood pressure

Elevated blood pressure is almost never a reason to delay or cancel surgery. In some cases of secondary hypertension,
very high blood pressure before surgery cannot be avoided, and the
surgery itself is meant to correct the cause of the high blood pressure.

During surgery, a type of doctor called an anesthesiologist is
responsible for monitoring your vital signs. In addition to putting you
to sleep for the surgery, he also carefully watches your heart rate,
breathing pattern and blood pressure. By studying your medical history
and understanding the type of surgery being performed, the
anesthesiologist knows what values each vital sign should have. During
the surgery he will not only monitor these values, but will use
intravenous drugs to correct them if they start to deviate from
accepted values.

The drugs used to control heart rate and blood pressure during
surgery are all given through an IV tube, are very fast acting, and
extremely effective. Throughout the surgical procedure, all of your
vital signs will be maintained at very close to their ideal levels.

For elective surgical procedures like cosmetic surgery or vision
correction surgery, the surgeon may want to try and get your blood
pressure as close to normal as possible before proceeding with the
surgery. While this is not strictly necessary, it does reduce the risk
of certain surgical complications. Since the surgery can safely be
delayed as long as necessary, this approach is medically appropriate in
these circumstances.