A study presented at the AAOS Annual Meeting revealed smoking cessation programs may help reduce orthopedic surgery complications in smoking patients.
Here's what you need to know:
1. Rates for hospital readmission, surgical site infections and blood clots are lower for smokers who were enrolled in a smoking cessation program prior to hip or knee surgery.
2. Patients who used tobacco within one month of surgery develop deep surgical infections twice as often as those who don't.
3. Researchers suggested orthopedic surgeons promote and implement smoking termination programs to improve surgical outcomes and reduce patients' healthcare costs.
4. Lead study author Amy Wasterlain, a fourth-year resident at New York City-based NYU Langone's department of orthopedic surgery said, "We've known that smokers do worse than non-smokers after joint replacements, and now this research shows there's good early evidence that quitting smoking before surgery may improve their outcomes."
5. Smokers undergoing total joint replacements have a 50 percent increased risk of experiencing complications during surgery. These complications typically average out to an additional $5,000 in hospital costs compared to non-smokers.
6. The researchers noted that their findings represent trends and larger study which is currently underway will determine statistical significance.
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