Why the study?
Does stopping smoking a few weeks prior to surgery worsen clinical outcomes in smokers undergoing surgery?
Does stopping smoking a few weeks prior to surgery worsen clinical outcomes in smokers undergoing surgery?
Health professionals should advise smokers to quit at any time prior to surgery, as stopping shortly before surgery does not worsen clinical outcomes.
May support advising cessation at any preoperative interval; leaves open need for randomized confirmation.
Existing data indicate that the concern that stopping smoking only a few weeks prior to surgery might worsen clinical outcomes is unfounded. Further larger studies would be useful to arrive at a more robust conclusion. Patients should be advised to stop smoking as early as possible, but there is no evidence to suggest that health professionals should not be advising smokers to quit at any time prior to surgery.
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Myers et al. (2011) studied this question.
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