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Smoking leads to higher costs after elective surgery
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May 29, 2012 / Nurse.com News / — Cigarette smoking contributes to significantly higher hospital costs for smokers undergoing elective general surgery, according to a study.
When researchers analyzed data on more than 14,000 patients, they found that postoperative respiratory complications help drive up these costs.
According to previous estimates cited in the study, which appears in the June issue of Journal of the American College of Surgeons, about 30% of patients undergoing elective general surgery procedures smoke. Although an abundance of research has associated smoking with an increased risk of numerous postoperative complications, especially those related to pulmonary, cardiovascular and wound-healing outcomes, little information is available comparing surgical costs for smokers versus nonsmokers, said Aparna S. Kamath, MD, MS, the study’s lead author and clinical assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.
