[High blood pressure in hospital: should it be treated?]

Uncontrolled blood pressure is a problem frequently encountered in hospital. Health workers may be inclined to initiate or increase hypertensive treatment to decrease blood pressure. However, studies have shown that in the absence of hypertensive emergency, there is no indication to treat hypertension in hospitalized patients. On the contrary, a treatment modification would increase the occurrence of complications without achieving better long-term blood pressure control. The role of the hospital physician is to recognize hypertensive emergencies, to look for and treat reversible external factors that could influence blood pressure and finally to refrain from treating blood pressure in the absence of target organ damage.