Smoking status and perioperative adverse events in patients undergoing cranial tumor surgery

Smoking is agreed to be a major health risk factor, but it is debated whether it has an influence on perioperative adverse events (AEs) in elective cranial tumor surgery.

We analyzed the 2013-2016 data from our prospective institutional patient registry. Consecutive patients undergoing elective microsurgical tumor surgery of a glioma or a meningioma were included. Patients were categorized as active smokers, former smokers, and non-smokers. AE were graded by the therapy-oriented Clavien-Dindo scale. Possible predictors of postoperative AE were identified with the help of a binomial logistic regression model.

We identified 798 patients, out of which 480 were non-smokers, 193 active smokers, and 125 former smokers. The rate of AEs for active smokers (30%, 95% CI [23-37%]) was indistinguishable from the AE rate of non-smokers (32%, 95% CI [28-37%]). No difference between smoking status was found looking at all AE individually, the odds ratio of suffering from local AE and systemic AE respectively were the same between all smoking groups. The modified Rankin scale at hospital admission was a strong and significant predictor of postoperative AE (P = 0.013).

Active smoking was not associated with an increased risk for postoperative AE, neither looking at the total number of AE nor looking at individual AE. Smoking status should therefore not be a major factor in preoperative decision making. Although not based on data of this study, doctors should always encourage patients to stop smoking due to its well-known detrimental health effect.