Smoking can be detrimental to health in ways that go beyond disease. One example: it affects how the body handles surgery. For this reason, some doctors are even refusing to operate on smokers to help prevent complications.
While not all doctors go that far, others ask patients to stop, or at least reduce smoking cigarettes before and after a surgical procedure. The request makes sense, because quitting even one or two days before surgery—and staying smoke-free afterward—reduces the risk of some complications and helps the body heal better and faster post-operation.
Why is it that smoking and surgery don’t mix? We turned to the experts behind BecomeAnEX®, a digital quit-smoking program hosted by Truth Initiative® and developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic, for answers to three common questions about smoking and surgery.
