Stopping smoking could speed recovery after operations

Research presented to the world conference on tobacco and health in Helsinki last week indicates that smokers take longer to recover from surgery than people who have given up smoking.

The study looked at the effects of smoking cessation and the outcomes of surgery. Dr Ann Moller, a consultant anaesthetist at the Herber University Hospital, Denmark, looked at 166 smokers who were waiting at least eight weeks for hip or knee surgery.

She and her colleagues divided the participants into two groups—one group received intensive counselling on smoking cessation and an offer of free nicotine replacement treatment, while the control group was offered standard preoperative …