Preoperative hypertension: prevalence and quality of control before elective surgical procedures in North-Central Nigeria

Background: patients with perioperative hypertension are frequently encountered and have increased rates of complications like myocardial infarction, renal dysfunction and congestive heart failure. This study was to determine the prevalence and quality of control of perioperative hypertension in elective surgical patients. Methods: This was a prospective, descriptive cross-sectional study of adult patients scheduled for elective surgical operations. On the day before surgery, the patients were visited on the hospital ward where a questionnaire was administered to obtain demographic data, presence of comorbid diseases, cardiovascular risk factors and compliance with pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatment measures. Results: Two hundred and forty-six patients were enrolled in the study. The mean age of the participants was 42.99 (14.92) years. Fifty-eight (23.58%) patients presented with hypertension while 188 (76.42%) did not. The patients with hypertension had a significantly higher mean age (p = 0.00001) and mean BMI (0.000088) than those without hypertension. Twenty-four (41.38%) had blood pressure in the Stage 1 range (140–159/ 90–99 mm Hg) and nine (15.52%) had blood pressure in the Stage 2 range (160–179/ 100–109 mm Hg). No patient had a blood pressure above 180/110mmHg. Three surgeries were postponed; they were all in hypertensive patients consisting 5.17% of all hypertensive patients. Conclusion: We conclude that the prevalence of hypertension makes it an important peri-operative comorbidity in our environment. Blood pressure control was poor while surgical case postponements were more likely in the hypertensive than in the non-hypertensive subjects.