Don’t Just Think About Quitting…
Stop smoking before surgery.
A common question patients ask is, “how long before surgery should I quit smoking?” The simple answer is to “just quit” whenever you have made the decision. Optimally, four to six weeks before surgery would be the time needed to clear yourself of a habit, and benefit from all the advantages that quitting has.
Benefits that include:
Reduced risk of blood clots. Smoking thickens the blood giving it more resistance as it travels through your blood vessels, especially those in your lower legs giving you higher risk for blood clots known as DVTs.
Improved pain control. Smokers with higher inflammatory markers in their body generally experience more pain and have a higher sensitivity to pain, than patients who don't smoke.
Improved wound healing. Smoking causes the narrowing of blood vessels which likewise can prevent healthy nutrients to reach your healing surgical wound. Smoking reduces oxygen delivery to needy tissues. It reduces the red blood cells ability to deliver oxygen, critical for healing both for the top “skin” incision, the incision you see, and what’s under that incision, the tissues you do not see.
Improved immune system. Smoking raises your risk of infection. Neutrophils, the tiny and yet powerful cells that fight infection throughout our body, lose their ability to fight infection at their maximum capacity.
