[Smoking and anesthesia]

M Palot1, H Visseaux, A Causse-Mariscal

  • 1Département d'Anesthésie-Réanimation, CHU de Reims, 51092 Reims Cedex. mpalot@chu-reims.fr

There is no specific study about consequences of smoking in anesthetized pregnant women. General anesthesia is mainly involved in adverse effects of smoking. Among smoking patients, there is a significant increase in the incidence of cardiac and respiratory complications during and after anaesthesia. Post operative anxiety increases in smokers patients. But smoking decreases the incidence of nausea and vomiting after surgery. It would be better if smoking cessation took place 2 months before surgery, it is necessary to stop smoking 12 hours before anaesthesia. For general anaesthesia, propofol and sevoflurane provide less respiratory complications than other drugs. If possible, regional anaesthesia is the best choice for smoking patients.

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