View Full Version : Increased resting heart rate after spinal fusion surgery?

01-23-2011, 08:55 PM
Has anyone else experienced this? Before surgery my resting heart rate was always in the upper 50's or low 60's. Since surgery my heart rate is consistently around 100. Is this a side effect of the surgery or just the meds (oxycotin and cycobalamene)? My blood pressure is higher too since surgery. Any thoughts???

01-23-2011, 09:37 PM
one thing i know about the pain meds, LaurieAnn, is that they tend to cause lowered blood pressure...
i don't know anything about surgery or pain meds having an impact on heart rate...but i am sure it is possible...

can you ask your surgeon or your GP?


01-24-2011, 05:50 AM
I had this, to the extent that they were talking about giving me meds to slow down my heart rate in the hospital, but eventually it settled down on its own. It's an aftereffect of surgery -- I'm not sure why, but it seems to happen to a lot of people. At one point, I had a visitor, and apparently the effort of trying to sit up and be sociable caused my heart to race so badly the nurses made my friend leave. Also, for me, my blood pressure would spike whenever I had a lot of pain -- especially in the morning, when I was due for another round of pain pills.

01-24-2011, 07:11 AM
Well, the surgery is really traumatic on your body, like being hit by a truck. To me, logic follows that your heart rate may be increased as your body is working harder than normal in order to heal itself. I'm not a doctor but that is my guess.

In any case I would definitely call the surgeon and/or my GP and make sure it's safe.

01-24-2011, 02:50 PM
Boy, we are all really different in our recoveries. I'd always had low blood pressure and pulse anyway but about at 3 weeks, I started having such low low readings it was ridiculous. When the home care nurses would come they often couldn't even get a reading on me. This went on for a couple weeks. They had me go to my primary doctor and she almost put me in but it slowly started to come around. Janet

01-24-2011, 03:02 PM
+1 here, had high heart rate and bp for a at least a month post op, prob 2

01-24-2011, 08:46 PM
I have very high BP, to th extent I've landed in the hospital with stroke level pressure. But a lot of it is work related.. My surgery was January 10th, and I am at normal BP now. They took me off my BP meds in the hospital so I wouldn't be too low. It is still normal without resuming meds. Is it the painkillers or am I just that relaxed being away from work???? Pretty bad that back fusion is less stressful than work....

01-24-2011, 09:36 PM
I also had an increased heart rate. Resting was about 120 bpm and when I stood and walked it went up to 150 bpm! A nurse would always come running into my room when I went to use the bathroom because some monitor went off. I was told by a nurse that my heart rate was high because I was in horrible, unmanaged pain and my hemoglobin was low (9 at that point). I don't remember when my heart rate went back to normal. It was probably a month or so.


01-29-2011, 04:39 PM
I'm 7 weeks post op on Monday and my resting heart rate is still around 96. How long did your elevated hr last? My doctor also said my ferritin level is high (~250) but said that from chronic inflammation which also caused my anemia. They checked my iron and b12/folate and said all levels were fine so i'm confused as to what is causing the anemia. I guess the inflammation is still from surgery? Anyone else have a similar experience? I'm worried maybe there's a deep tissue infection or something we can't see on the surface!?