[Systemic hypertension and anesthesia.].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Due to the high incidence of systemic hypertension and the lack of consensus on pressure levels to be accepted before inducing anesthesia for elective procedures, literature associated to hypertension and anesthesia was reviewed. Considering that canceling a surgery implies expenses making Medicine increasingly more expensive and that, on the other hand, anesthesia should be induced in the safest possible manner, this study aimed at evaluating literature evidences to orient clinical practice. CONTENTS Incidence and classification of systemic hypertension in addition to reports and comments on relevant studies approaching hypertension in surgical patients are presented. CONCLUSIONS Maximum pressure levels compatible with elective procedures are still not established and today criteria to cancel surgery of poorly controlled hypertensive patients are more based on empirical data than on evidences. There is a trend to cancel the procedure when BP is above 180/110 mmHg, but situations should be evaluated in a case-by-case basis, giving more importance to target-organs injury than to blood pressure itself.