“Why is anesthesia hard on the heart?”

Anesthesia is "hard" on the heart because all of the medicines we use to induce anesthesia are myocardial depressants, meaning they decrease heart function a little bit. Now, if you have a healthy heart, this is essentially unnoticed, but in the instance of somebody with heart problems, it can really cause some blood pressure problems.

There are a number of reasons. First, the medicines (gases) we use don't allow the heart muscles to contract as strongly as they normally would. Second, all surgeries are a stressor on the body -- which means your heart is having to work harder and faster in an environment (anesthesia gases) which doesn't allow it to work at its best capacity. Then each individual is different and their comorbidities such as smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc., also complicate the picture.
Hope this answers your question.

It is not hard on the heart, but certain medications used as part of the anesthetic general anesthesia "recipe" may affect cardiovascular system, especially in patients with co-existing cardiac disease.Sent from my Galaxy