Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 7/12/2011

Question
Hi,,,am 63years old female,with no relevant medical history,except subclinical hypothyroidism,and having thyroxine for that,my TCH,T4 T3 are back to normal value.i had to go into surgery to remove the gall bladder,,they did all the test before the surgery and i was fine,my blood pressure was 120over 80..During the very first minute of the surgery the blood pressure elevates up to 250 over 120,,they gave me hydralzine injection,,and the blood pressure stayed 180over 100 all surgery long.After 2 hours of surgery the blood pressure went back to normal(120 over 80),am worried about why did this happened,is it going to be risky if i have to go into G.A AGAIN IN THE FUTURE?and does that mean i will have hypertension?thanx alot

Answer
Without seeing the Anesthesia record, it is impossible for me to explain your hypertension but if you BP did go that high and they were not able to control it, I am surprised they did not cancel the surgery. This is not an effect of anesthesia and should not happen to you in a future operation so you need not worry. Why it happened, I don't know but you might want to get a copy of your anesthetic record and give to any future anesthesiologist so that he will know what happened in the past.

Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston