Smoking significantly increases the risk of infection, wound complications and reoperation after revision total knee arthroplasty, according to a study in The Journal of Arthroplasty.
The study authors used the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program to identify patients who underwent revision TKA between 2006 and 2014. In total, 8,776 patients underwent the procedure; 11.6 percent of these patients were current smokers.
Smokers had a higher rate of any wound complication compared to non-smokers as well as deep infection, pneumonia and reoperation. These results are even greater for revision procedures compared to published effects of smoking on primary TKA complications.
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