Why we need to Stop Vaping before Surgery

The health hazards of smoking have been recorded for decades, but the research on vaping the smoking of electronic cigarettes, is still in its infancy. It’s the nicotine in cigarettes, which leads to the habit of smoking and poor healing, anaesthesia risks and a host of other potential complications for a surgery patient. 

Electronic cigarettes often are characterized as a safer alternative to traditional tobacco products but vaping liquid contains nicotine, which significantly increases the risk for complications related to surgery and anaesthesia. Nicotine tightens blood vessels and decreases healthy circulation of blood, which delays healing and can lead to poor scarring, infection and other dangerous complications.

Nicotine starves healing tissues of critical blood supply:

Nicotine acts as a vasoconstrictor; it shrinks the blood vessels and decreases healthy circulation of blood, which is very much essential for tissue healing to survive. The result of vasoconstriction after surgery leads to poor scarring to tissue death. These complications may require additional or unplanned surgery.

Anaesthesia becomes more risky: Nicotine and smoking changes our body chemistry by making it harder to predict body will react to certain medications, like anaesthesia drugs. Carbon monoxide in the body from smoking lowers blood oxygen levels, making it more difficult for heart and lungs to work under anaesthesia.

Smoking increases risk of blood clots: The chemicals in cigarettes thicken the blood. Thick & sticky blood likes to clot. If a clot forms and travels to the heart or lungs, a life-threatening pulmonary embolism can occur.

Painful recovery: Nicotine can lower the effectiveness of certain medications or interfere with the way they work on the body, impacting healing and leading to greater discomfort after surgery.

Scars will heal more slowly: In can add risk for infection, a prolonged healing process as a result it can cause scars to heal irregularly or more prominently than intended.

Opens the door for infection: Cigarette weakens our immune system by making it easier for harmful microbes to infect your incision sites. Infection can be dangerous to health and can negatively affect the results of surgery.