Addiction to tobacco and tobacco products (cigarettes, pipes, cigars, hookahs) is a very common and deadly social phenomenon all over the world. The harmful effects of tobacco cause problems both during and after surgery.
Since smoking will cause the death of cells in the body, the lung capacity of the patients will decrease and their oxygenation will decrease due to the loss of alveoli. On this occasion, these patients require more anesthetic drugs and gases during general anesthesia, it is difficult to keep blood pressure under control, and the probability of experiencing problems during awakening from anesthesia increases. These patients have to cough frequently as a reflex, as lung secretions will increase after anesthesia. As a result, they both feel severe chest pain and increase the risk of bleeding after surgery. In general, smokers have an increased risk of bleeding during surgery, delayed wound healing after surgery, and prolonged hospital stay.
In studies examining the effects of smoking on the success of surgical and drug treatment of otolaryngological diseases, it has been reported that smoking doubles the recovery time after surgery, reduces the success rate of surgery by half, and increases the likelihood of reoperation by 3 times. From these results, it should not be difficult to predict that smokers will benefit less from surgery than non-smokers.
Many companies abroad impose a smoking ban on their employees, and some insurance companies do not cover the health expenses of patients who smoke. Also, many surgeons do not want to operate on smokers as the chance of success is lower. In some countries, the condition of quitting smoking at least one month before all surgeries has been made compulsory.
It is more difficult to quit smoking by reducing, the rate of those who decide to quit suddenly is 80%, while the rate of those who quit by reducing is 5%. Do yourself a big favor and get rid of this addiction as soon as possible and live a long and healthy life with your loved ones.
