Can I Have Laser Eye Surgery if I Have High Blood Pressure?

Also known as hypertension, high blood pressure is a common condition in which the pressure inside your arteries is higher than it should be.

High blood pressure is particularly worrying as you can have it without a sign of any symptoms, and yet it can increase your chances of experiencing serious problems like heart disease or a stroke.

Thankfully, with modern devices, it’s pretty easy to check whether or not you have high blood pressure, and with modern treatments, there’s also many things you can do to help manage and reduce it.

One of the tricky things about hypertension, however, is that it can be caused by other health problems. In most cases there’s no one underlying cause, but, for instance, that increase in arterial pressure can be affected by everything from age, race, and family history, to pregnancy, diet, and stress.

When it comes to having surgery, this means there can be factors relating to high blood pressure that make you an unsuitable candidate.

However, you will be pleased to know that having high blood pressure in itself is not a contraindication for Laser Eye Surgery. When we do your pre-operative assessment, though, we do take a full medical history, which is very important in helping us assess your suitability for treatment.

High blood pressure and your suitability for Laser Eye Surgery

One of the most — if not the most — important parts of Laser Eye Surgery is the preoperative assessment.

It is during the preoperative assessment where it is determined if you are suitable or unsuitable for treatment. Of course, this depends on a number of individual factors, such as your medical history, your prescription, and your general health, but it also depends on the clinic’s technology, expertise, and capabilities in safely delivering the treatment in a range of different circumstances.

At the London Vision Clinic, despite seeing a vast array of patients with all kinds of conditions, there is a 98 percent chance that we can actually help you. Some clinics — with less sophisticated treatment and assessment methods — turn away up to 20 percent of candidates as they believe they are not suitable for Laser Eye Surgery, when in fact they are simply not able to treat them.

This is why, if you a condition like high blood pressure and are considering Laser Eye Surgery, it is important to always get a second or third opinion. It is also why many people opt to have Laser Eye Surgery not on the high street, but at a private clinic or hospital which is not just operated by medical experts, but run by them too.

If you’d like to find out more about high blood pressure and Laser Eye Surgery and discover if you are suitable for treatment, leave us a comment below or contact one of our friendly clinic coordinators.