EKG during operation question

ApeXaviour

Actually my first question is, when you get an operation and they strap those sticky things to your chest to monitor your heart, that is an EKG right?
Is the monitoring in any way equivalent to an EKG test they would give to someone say complaining of chest pains?
If so would a medical professional automatically rule out a number of heart conditions (or discover as the case may be) indirectly by this monitoring process?

Was browsing wikipedia and this question just popped into the head

Traumadoc

The Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is a recording of the electrical activity of the heart as these impulses pass through the body. If there is disturbance in these electrical signals as they pass through damaged tissue it will be seen on the paper recording. Normally this is done through what is called a 12 lead ECG.


Monitoring during an operation usually looks at one lead and only gives limited information such as how fast the heart is beating and is it beating regularly. It is not used for diagnosis only monitoring rate and rhythm.

DrIndy

As an addendum, the process of anaesthesia or the operation itself can alter physiology of the heart and create dangerous heart rhythms - hence the constant monitoring.

Anaesthesia affects the entire body and can dilate veins and arteries which alter blood flow into and out of the heart. The process of ventilation when you are fully asleep is artificial and can put extra pressure on certain parts of the heart. If people have sensitive hearts, such as with heart disease or simply if they are genetically susceptible and never knew they had a heart disease, then those people can run into trouble. Anaesthetic agents themselves can have an effect on heart muscle and make the heart pump less well - which for someone who has a damaged heart from a heart attack is not good.

The operation itself can also affect the blood flow into and out of the heart, keyhole surgery involves inflating the stomach cavity with carbon dioxide gas, the pressure of this can reduce blood flow back to the heart or by altering stimulating the vagus nerve which affects heart rate (by pressure effect) can also alter heart rate and even make it dangerously slow.

Because of this, constant monitoring allows an anaesthetist to give drugs to rebalance the heart quickly before problems actually become serious and correct these differences.

Also anaesthesia is a complex process that is not fully understood. Monitoring heart rate and blood pressure is important to control the process. Pain from an operation (such as cutting skin) causes the heart rate to increase and blood pressure to go up and an anaethetist typically increases anaesthesia when the actual operation starts to reduce this, also as the operation ends, the anaesthesia is reduced to compensate for the reduced pain.

Also anaethetists are paranoid and cautious people by trade and plan for all possibilities and monitor EVERYTHING, just in case.