July 8, 2010 - Smoking increases the risk of postoperative complications, making smokers more susceptible to infections and difficulties with healing.  Given these serious health effects, surgery acts as a major driving force for smoking cessation efforts.  A recent study published in the Cochrane Library, “Interventions for Preoperative Smoking Cessation,” researched preoperative smoking interventions and assessed their effect on smoking cessation and postoperative complications.

Researchers Thomsen et al. reviewed eight different trials for their study and found that both comprehensive and brief interventions increased smoking cessation at the time of surgery (pooled RR of 10.76).  When looked at together, both types of trials showed a significant effect on long-term smoking cessation as well. However when looking at these two types of interventions separately, only comprehensive interventions had a significant effect on long-term quit rates.  When reviewing postoperative complications, researchers found the risk ratio for developing any kind of complication and the risk ratio for wound complications to both be 0.70 when looking at both brief and comprehensive interventions together.  However, when looking at these two types of interventions separately, there was only a significant effect on general complications and wound complication with comprehensive interventions.

Based on these results, researchers concluded that preoperative smoking interventions increase short-term smoking cessation and may also reduce postoperative complications.  More research on the intensity of interventions is needed before determining whether a brief or comprehensive intervention is more successful.  In conclusion, these results show that surgery may present a beneficial opportunity for smoking cessation interventions.

For more information please visit: http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab002294.html