Quit rates "high" after pre-surgery smoking program

Last Updated: 2008-06-27 10:02:37 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who get smoking cessation counseling before having surgery may be able to kick the habit for the long term, Danish researchers report.

Among a group of smokers who had hip or knee replacement surgery, 22 percent of those who went through a pre-operative smoking cessation program were still cigarette-free one year later.

The quit rate is "surprisingly high," Dr. Hanne Tonnesen, of the University of Copenhagen, and colleagues report in The Clinical Respiratory Journal.

By contrast, just 3 percent of patients not offered the intervention were non-smokers after one year.

Smoking increases the risk of surgery complications, so smokers are normally advised to quit before undergoing an operation. Studies have found that patients offered formal smoking cessation counseling have short-term quit rates of up to 90 percent.

The new findings suggest that such programs can also encourage some patients to quit for the long haul.

The study included 120 smokers who were randomly assigned to either go through the smoking cessation program -- which included counseling and free nicotine-replacement products -- or receive no pre-surgery help with quitting.

In a previous analysis of these patients one month after surgery, Tonnesen and colleagues found that 60 percent of the intervention group had stopped smoking, and another 20 percent had at least halved their cigarette consumption. Just 7 percent of the comparison group had stopped smoking.

While cessation rates were lower overall one year later, Tonnesen's team found 13 of the intervention patients, compared with two patients in the comparison group, were still non-smokers.

At both time points, the researchers found the most pronounced improvement among men with low nicotine dependence and a non-smoking partner.

The researchers also found that after five years, death rates were 8 percent in the intervention group and 17 percent in the comparison group. They say that further follow-up should help determine whether the smoking-cessation patients have a better survival rate over the long term.

SOURCE: The Clinical Respiratory Journal, July 2008.