We know you've heard it before: Smoking is bad for your health. What fewer people may realize is that smoking/tobacco use also raises your risk -- in a big way -- of complications during and after an operation.
We want to help you lower your risk.
Did you know that smoking or using tobacco affects your breathing and:
- Raises your risk of being on a respirator (breathing machine) longer
- Makes it much harder for you to be able to breathe on your own and get off the respirator after surgery
- Raises the risk of getting pneumonia after your operation
Smoking or using tobacco also:
- Narrows your blood vessels, which makes it harder for your body to grow new tissue and heal the wound from surgery
- Raises your risk of getting an infection in your wound
- Makes scarring more likely
But knowing all of this doesn't make it easier to actually quit. We get that. Maybe you've even tried to quit before and gone back to smoking or using tobacco. That's okay. We'll walk you through a plan for quitting now -- and provide plenty of support along the way.