Smoking cessation rates amongst patients undergoing vascular surgery

Vascular surgeons and interventionists explain the patients and suggest them to stop smoking in the perioperative period. But some of them fail to stop smoking due to various reasons. Recurrence of the stenotic lesions and thrombosis is known to be higher in such people. In our hospital 25% of the patients stop smoking forever. 50% of patients stop smoking for some time and restart after discharge. 25% of smokers never stop smoking.

Smoking is the single most important modifiable risk factor for patients with vascular disease. A study was done in Canada with an aim to determine prevalence of smoking and cessation rates amongst patients undergoing vascular surgery.

Results  of that study - Overall 624 patients had complete follow up data. Of these, 209 (33.5%) were smokers pre-surgically. At 1 year follow up of those 209 patients who were smokers pre-op, 87 (41.6%) had stopped smoking while 122 (58.4%) had not. Patients who were male and aged >70 were more likely to be smokers pre-operatively (p=0.001 and p<0 .001="" aged="" cessation="" in="" increased="" rates="" respectively="" those="" were="">70 years (p=0.005), and in those with COPD (p=0.016). Gender was also statistically associated, with cessation rates higher in females (p=0.011).

They concluded by saying that,  more than one-third of patients who underwent surgery in a Canadian vascular center continue to smoke.  

May be, we should study the outcomes of vascular treatments after improving this difficult habit (smoking cessation) further. We should do a study targeting the smoking habit and then measuring the outcomes of the vascular procedures. The attention is needed in this direction at this hour.

Reference

McHugh, S.M. et al. Smoking cessation rates amongst patients undergoing vascular surgery in a Canadian center.  .Annals of Vascular Surgery , Volume 0 , Issue 0 ,  article in press

http://www.annalsofvascularsurgery.com/article/S0890-5096(16)31348-6/fulltext