Preoperative intervention for smoking cessation: A systematic review.

Area of Science:

• Medical Research
• Public Health
• Surgical Outcomes

Background:

• Smoking significantly increases the risk of postoperative complications.
• Effective pre-surgical smoking cessation strategies are crucial but challenging to implement.
• This review aimed to synthesize evidence on pre-hospital smoking cessation interventions and their impact on cessation rates.

Approach:

• Systematic review of English language articles from 1998 to 2019.
• Searches conducted across major databases including MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycInfo, Embase, Web of Science, and CINAHL.
• Inclusion criteria focused on adult patients in pre-hospital smoking cessation programs, excluding studies with historical controls or solely self-reported outcomes.

Key Points:

• Nine articles involving 1762 patients were analyzed.
• Interventions encompassed nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), e-cigarettes, counseling, and medications.
• Four studies reported statistically significant differences in smoking cessation rates, confirmed by exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) levels.

Conclusions:

• The effectiveness of pre-hospital smoking cessation interventions varies widely.
• Diverse interventions, settings, and outcome measures complicate the identification of a universal best practice.
• Ongoing investigation is essential to optimize pre-hospital smoking cessation protocols for surgical patients.