High blood pressure emergencies

High blood pressure usually is an ongoing condition that slowly causes damage over years. But sometimes blood pressure rises so quickly and seriously that it becomes a medical emergency. When this happens, treatment is needed right away, often with hospital care.

In these situations, high blood pressure can cause:

• Blindness.
• Chest pain.
• Complications in pregnancy, such as the blood pressure-related conditions preeclampsia or eclampsia.
• Heart attack.
• Memory loss, personality changes, trouble concentrating, irritable mood or gradual loss of consciousness.
• Serious damage to the body's main artery, also called aortic dissection.
• Stroke.
• Sudden impaired pumping of the heart, leading to fluid backup in the lungs that results in shortness of breath, also called pulmonary edema.
• Sudden loss of kidney function.