High Blood Pressure—After Surgery

Also called: Postoperative care, Recovery from surgery

After any operation, you’ll have some side effects. There is usually some pain with surgery. There may also be swelling and soreness around the area that the surgeon cut. Your surgeon can tell you which side effects to expect.

There can also be complications. These are unplanned events linked to the operation. Some complications are infection, too much bleeding, reaction to anesthesia, or accidental injury. Some people have a greater risk of complications because of other medical conditions.

Your surgeon can tell you how you might feel and what you will be able to do – or not do – the first few days, weeks, or months after surgery. Some other questions to ask are

• How long you will be in the hospital
• What kind of supplies, equipment, and help you might need when you go home
• When you can go back to work
• When it is ok to start exercising again
• Are they any other restrictions in your activities

Following your surgeon’s advice can help you recover as soon as possible.

Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research

• Bland diet (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Deep breathing after surgery (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Diet – clear liquid (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Diet – full liquid (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Getting your home ready – after the hospital (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Indwelling catheter care (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Post surgical pain treatment – adults (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Self catheterization – female (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Self catheterization – male (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Suprapubic catheter care (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Surgical wound care — closed (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Surgical wound infection – treatment (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Urinary catheters (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Urine drainage bags (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Using an incentive spirometer (Medical Encyclopedia)

Also called: Benign essential hypertension, Essential hypertension, HBP, HTN, Hypertension

Blood pressure is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries. Each time your heart beats, it pumps blood into the arteries. Your blood pressure is highest when your heart beats, pumping the blood. This is called systolic pressure. When your heart is at rest, between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is called diastolic pressure.

Your blood pressure reading uses these two numbers. Usually the systolic number comes before or above the diastolic number. A reading of

• 119/79 or lower is normal blood pressure
• 140/90 or higher is high blood pressure
• Between 120 and 139 for the top number, or between 80 and 89 for the bottom number is called prehypertension. Prehypertension means you may end up with high blood pressure, unless you take steps to prevent it.

High blood pressure usually has no symptoms, but it can cause serious problems such as stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure.

You can control high blood pressure through healthy lifestyle habits such as exercise and the DASH diet and taking medicines, if needed.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

• ACE inhibitors (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Blood pressure measurement (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Blood pressure monitors for home (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Controlling your high blood pressure (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Drug-induced hypertension (Medical Encyclopedia)
• High blood pressure (Medical Encyclopedia)
• High blood pressure – children (Medical Encyclopedia)
• High blood pressure and eye disease (Medical Encyclopedia)
• High blood pressure medications (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Hypertensive heart disease (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Low-salt diet (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Malignant hypertension (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Renovascular hypertension (Medical Encyclopedia)