Plastic Surgery Patients Who Smoke
asked 3 years ago by anon
Latest answer by Stephen Prendiville, MD
Question viewed 8,021 times
Tags: health, smoking
How do plastic surgeons feel about operating on patients who smoke? Do plastic surgeons try and help patients quit? Are more doctors actively trying to get patients to stop smoking or offer smoking cessation programs or patches or thing like that?
10 answers to Plastic Surgery Patients Who Smoke
+5
Smoking and plastic surgery
There is no question that when I am doing a flap of skin (tummy tuck, facelift, mastopexy or reduction of the breast), I require patients to stop smoking for three weeks before the procedure. The effects of smoking are almost gone in three weeks.
Smoking introduces carbon monoxide into your system, which steals oxygen from the tissues, as well as nicotine, which crimps down on the blood vessels. There are many side effects, including longer healing time, worsened scars and more...
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+4
Some cosmetic operations can be done safely on smokers
I am afraid I have a prejudice that people who smoke are not very smart. (I myself smoked two packs of Camels a day for fifteen years!) But the key is not to be judgemental. True nicotine addicts cannot help it, anyway. It's only about surgical safety. So it depends on the operation.
Breast augmentation, liposuction, rhinoplasty (nose surgery), and eyelid surgery can be performed safely in smokers. I do not do face lifts, tummy tucks, breast lifts, or breast reductions in smokers...
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+4
Smoking cessation and cosmetic surgery
Any patient who comes to me for elective, cosmetic surgery who smokes receives education on smoking cessation. Usually, the information and recommendations imparted to patients depends upon their medical status, the type of operation they are seeking, and their age.
For example, a healthy 28-year-old woman for breast augmentation is counseled that smoking is harmful to her health in many ways, including the way her scars will heal because of the blood vessel constriction caused by...
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Jennifer Walden, MD
Austin Plastic Surgeon
Austin Plastic Surgeon
+2
What scientific literature tells about plastic surgery and smoking
After careful examination of the scientific literature, I was able to find the following to have deleterious effects on wound healing and wound repair:
1. Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor that reduces nutritional blood flow to the skin, resulting in tissue ischemia and impaired healing of injured tissue. Vasoconstriction means constriction of blood vessels, namely arteries that supply nutrients and oxygen to our tissues. Less blood flow means less oxygen and nutrients to the tissue that are...
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Hratch Karamanoukian, MD
Buffalo General Surgeon
Buffalo General Surgeon
+2
Plastic surgeons are doctors of medicine first before...
Plastic surgeons are doctors of medicine first before they specialize in surgery. As such, the care of the whole patient is always their concern so efforts are directed at guiding their patients toward healthy lifestyle choices such as cessation of smoking, proper diet, exercise, and weight management. Specifically, with regard to smoking, it is critical that patients be off all nicotine products for a month before and a month after certain kinds of surgeries. These are surgeries that...
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+2
Plastic Surgery may curb the smoking habit
Smoking tobacco of any kind puts the plastic surgery patient at risk for severe complications. The goal of any board certified plastic surgeon is to minimize risk to our patients, especially for elective cosmetic surgery. Most patients understand this fact and will work with me to stop smoking, including referral to smoking cessation clinics, their primary doctor, or holistic approaches, such as acupuncture.
I have had several patients over the years come back to me, with their...
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Julius W. Few, MD
Chicago Plastic Surgeon
Chicago Plastic Surgeon
+2
Butt Out! Why Risk Having Your Plastic Surgery Results Go Up In Smoke?
Every responsible Plastic Surgeon advises his patients to quit smoking at least three weeks before and two weeks after an anticipated surgical procedure. Ideally, patients should quit smoking entirely, or better still should never take up the habit in the first place. I find it confounding that otherwise intelligent people in this day and age begin or continue to smoke in seeming total disregard of the wealth of information available which directly links smoking to premature death as a...
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Athleo Louis Cambre, MD
Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon
Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon
+1
Smokers and Surgery
I have particularly strong feelings about this issue which I convey to my patients at the time of the initial consultation. I will not perform a Facelift on an active smoker due to the increase risk of hematoma, infection, and skin slough. Nicotine decrease blood flow to the skin and the carbon monoxide inhaled while smoking diminishes the red blood cells' oxygen carrying capacity. In my practice, patients seeking a Facelift who are active smokers are asked to stop smoking...
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+1
Smoking and plastic surgery
Nicotine is the most powerful blood vessel constrictor that we know whether it is a cigarette or gum or patch. In facial cosmetic surgery the quoted number is a 10% chance of actual skin loss. Ideally you should stop smoking better than 2 weeks before your procedure and not resume til atleast 3 weeks after. If you continue to smoke, it forces your physician if he/she is willing to operate on you to be more conservative. Now you are not necessarily getting the...
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Roger J. Friedman, MD
Bethesda Plastic Surgeon
Bethesda Plastic Surgeon
+1
Smoking is a definite no no for surgery. I always review...
Smoking is a definite no no for surgery. I always review this with patients. Patients that smoke have a significantly higher risk of complications as compared to those that do not.
