Smoking and Anesthesia – Pre-Surgery

Transcript

You should abstain from smoking for 24 hours prior to your surgery. However, we prefer you stop smoking for a week or more. Sometimes your surgeon and / or anesthesiologist will actually insist on a certain time period prior to your procedure, where you are to abstain from smoking. Why, you ask? If you have a very high risk for breathing problems after surgery due to underlying breathing issues like asthma, COPD, or sleep apnea, in addition to the smoking, or there’s a significant concern for wound healing problems, your doctor might insist on that certain time period for you not smoke to avoid these and other complications.