Six-week program initiated after acute fracture surgery decreases post-surgical complications
MONDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) -- Initiating a smoking cessation intervention program after acute fracture surgery and carrying it out for six weeks may reduce the risk of post-surgical complications, according to a study in the June 1 issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
Hans Nåsell, M.D., of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues randomized 105 smokers with a fracture of the lower or upper extremity that needed acute surgical treatment to an intervention group, which was offered a standardized smoking cessation program for six weeks, or a control group.
The researchers found that the proportion of patients with at least one post-surgical complication was significantly larger in the control group compared to the smoking cessation intervention group (38 versus 20 percent), with the development of two or more post-surgical complications also higher within the control group. Although the difference in the rates of superficial wound infection was not significant, the rate was higher in the control group (20 percent) compared to the intervention group (8 percent). In addition, the odds of having a complication were 2.51 times higher in the control group compared to the intervention group, but the difference was not significant.
"We believe that smokers with an acute fracture requiring emergency surgery should be offered a smoking cessation intervention during the hospitalization period after the injury," the authors write.
One or more authors disclosed financial ties to Pfizer and Bactiguard AB.
Abstract
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)