Patients who have received a brief intervention to help them quit smoking before surgery are more likely to be nonsmokers at 1-year follow-up.
The simple, inexpensive program triples the percentage of patients with long-term smoking cessation at one year after surgery, according to the study by Dr Susan M. Lee and colleagues of University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
They write, “Anesthesiologists and perioperative providers have a unique opportunity to help patients achieve both short-term and long-term smoking cessation.”
