premature atrial complexes

[ladygerman1]

i went for preops today for gallbladder surgery next week.  i am a 42 yo female who has been given repeated bad news for the last year.  diagnosed with copd, high blood pressure and hep c.  large gall stone with diseased gallbladder, gotta come out.  they did the ekg as part of preop and the tech let me see it. basically i could only understand the english, Haha,  premature atrial complexes but otherwise normal ekg.  ran home looked up what this was and am now afraid their gonna tell me heart disease.  i have always had some level of chest pain since i was a very young girl.  but after the hbp diag. monitor it daily and have noticed a beat that it not in perfect rythym.  obviously if this were of any comcern they wouldn't do the surgery.  i don't want to have a heart attack on the table.  just some laymen explanation would be appreciated.

[jpcox]

Are they dangerous if they are frequent? Please reply.

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

PACs or premature atrial contractions are extra beats, premature beats, originating from the upper chambers of your heart.  Everyone one has them sometimes at varying frequencies and a minority of people have symptoms with them.  Some people are very symptomatic.  PACs are not associated with an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.  Unless they are very frequent and the anesthesiologist is worried about them, they should not affect your surgery.  they will still need to a pre operative risk assessment as part of a normal pre op evaluation, but PACs alone should not delay your surgery.

I hope this helps.