Cannabis effects on heart rate, blood pressure, and blood flow can leave you feeling even more anxious than usual when preparing for a surgery. Regular marijuana users could be at potential risk during surgery if they’re not careful.
Is it safe to vape weed before surgery? No! Whether smoking marijuana cigarettes, enjoying cannabis edibles, or vaping weed with an electronic cigarette, you must inform your anesthesiologist before surgery about any cannabis use.
The effects of marijuana can pose potential risks and complications during surgery, largely thanks to the interaction of marijuana and blood flow.
You may end up with a different treatment plan as a regular marijuana user, as legalization of marijuana has seen cannabis ingestion become more popular.
Marijuana before surgery has several risks, but edible marijuana is especially problematic. Most doctors give you a window to stop eating for surgery, to reduce complications.
Marijuana smoking is also problematic, but for different reasons than edibles. Medical marijuana patients may struggle to avoid consumption, so let’s take a look at what users of marijuana can expect from surgery.
How Does Marijuana Affect my Surgery?
Health complications resulting from the effects of anesthesia and weed can put even the most rigid of medical marijuana programs at risk.
Regular marijuana users, both medicinal and recreational, face the potential health outcomes as those with existing health conditions going into surgery.
Health care providers may advise you against smoking and eating cannabis products prior to surgery, so they can use safe anesthesia and operate freely.
Smoking cannabis is particularly bad as it affects blood pressure and blood flow, which in turn affect the heart muscle function.
Intensity of cannabis is also increased if consumed on an empty stomach, so guidelines against eating before surgery can influence surgical procedures.
As such, it is important to inform your physician anesthesiologist about weed use before any medical treatment, so that they can avoid risks and also keep an eye out for cannabis related ailments.
Complications From Marijuana Use During Surgery
Even the safest and most pain free procedure can suffer complications from cannabis use, since marijuana can influence blood pressure.
Poor blood pressure can lead to a lack of blood supply in certain areas, where blood clots and vessel constrictions limit the blood flow.
Smoking cannabis can leave you with a vulnerability to heart disease thanks to these blood vessel constrictions and obstructions.
Poor heart function in patients with heart disease already is a dangerous combination, and most surgeons will refuse to even put you under for the operation.
Ingredients of cannabis are the same in medical cannabis and recreational strains, and either have the same implications of cannabis on surgery.
The connection of heart disease and heart attack to medical or adult use cannabis is very real, and should be avoided by those with existing heart conditions.
How Does Weed Affect Anesthesia?
There is a correlation between marijuana use and a need for increased amounts of anesthesia. While this might not sound too dangerous, it really is!
Excessive use of anesthesia can be fatal, especially in older people. The interaction of marijuana with anesthesia products also leads to more pain after the operation.
This can sound strange, as marijuana with opiates are known pain killers, but aspects of anesthesia lead to serious discomfort after the fact.
The awakening from anesthesia may also be delayed, thanks to poor blood pressure affecting the brain and consciousness in those smoking marijuana cigarettes, vaping weed, and eating cannabis.
Other complications and risks are still being discovered, as scientists can’t study marijuana without legislation to legalize it. This is because it is an abusive drug according to the federal government.
It’s not exactly clear how cannabis use influences anesthesium on the day of the surgery, but ingesting marijuana yesterday will cause issues.
Other complications with anesthesium also relate to digestion, and bowel movements. If you eat edibles, then you may put yourself at risk of developing infection,a dn a surgeon may refuse to operate.
Complications of anesthesia are mostly related to full body anesthetic, and not regional anesthesia. This only numbs the pain of parts of your body, and is more common in dental surgery.
Talking to Your Doctor About Cannabis
Talking to your doctor about cannabis use can be intimidating, especially thanks to the history of drug use and the American War on Drugs.
Since medical studies in the past were designed to paint cannabis in a bad way, effects in studies before the year 2000 are most often misleading in their results.
This makes it difficult to discuss weed with your primary care doctor, especially if they’re not a doctor familiar with narcotics in their career.
However, it is safe both physically and legally to discuss your marijuana use with a primary care doctor, and to raise any health concerns relating to it.
Legally speaking, doctors can’t refer you to law enforcement for cannabis use unless you pose a risk to the public, so feel free to inform your healthcare provider that you use marijuana.
Weed Use After Surgery
Providing you don’t suffer from a vaping related lung injury, cannabis use before surgery can increase post operative pain.
Postoperative pain can be alleviated with medical cannabis, but this isn’t a guaranteed result and you may simply have to continue abstaining from marijuana use.
If you do suffer a sudden outbreak of lung injury, lung disease, or otherwise damaged lungs and lung issues from your operation, it is best to avoid smoking and vaping cannabis.
