Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 4/7/2009

Question
Hi my name is mark. My question is will to much anesthesia do damage to your heart? I ask this because i just had surgery and i had my appendix taken out. When i woke up in the recovery room i couldn't breathe and my heartbeat was 172bpm. It went down a little a few hours later to about 125bpm but that was while i was laying down resting. If i got up and walked around it went up to about 140bpm. I'm now out of the hospital and my rate still gets in the low hundreds my heart never did this before surgery! Do you think the anesthesia could have damaged my heart from getting to much?

Answer
No!

If you had your appendix out, that means that you were probably feeling pretty sick. This will cause your heart rate to go up. I assume you ar young so a heart rate of 172 is not terrible (you probably get that from a good game of basketball). As for your heart rate still being up, it depends on how long ago the surgery was (just because you had your appendix out doesn't mean the infection is cured) or you may just be in a weakened state so your heart works harder. I am sure your heart rate will continue to go down. This is DEFINITELY not due to the anesthesia.

Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston