Will smoking affect my lab work test?

Smoking is unlikely to affect your bloodwork but can certainly affect your healing. Be sure your surgeon knows you are smoking. They are likely to want you to stop well before and after your procedure.

The only lab test that would be affected would be a blood carboxyhemoglobin or a urine nicotine.  Both of these tests we use to screen people who have reported that they quit smoking.   You should be less worried about beating the tests than you are about having a safe outcome i.e not smoking.Cigarette smoke contains 4000 toxic substances. The
effects of each of these substances on the outcome of a breast augmentation has
not been studied individually. The most important issues with cigarette
smoke is the carbon monoxide, which compromises the oxygen delivery to the
healing tissues, and the nicotine, which causes spasm of the blood vessels
delivering blood to the healing wound. Anything that compromises healing
can lead to an increase risk of infection, wound separation, or capsular
contracture. Just because there is no scientific paper which links
nicotine or carbon monoxide specifically to the development of capsular contracture,
does not mean that an association exists but has not been adequately
identified. Clearly eliminating the smoke is important because of the
carbon monoxide poisoning of the blood. Eliminating nicotine is important
as well. It would be wise to stay away from nicotine until everything is
completely healed.

Hello and thank you for the question. Smoking can be a major problem with certain procedures. We don't typically check for nicotine levels and smoking will not affect basic lab results. Having said that, you should be honest with your surgeon and let them know if you smoke.Best,Pejman Aflaki, M.D.Johns Hopkins trained plastic surgeon

Smoking will not effect routine labs, such as blood counts (CBC) or blood chemistry (BMP or Chem 7). Many surgeons will order a urine test to determine if there patients are smoking. It is called "urine cotinine" and will be positive if someone has had one cigarette in the past 7 days. 

While smoking (presuming tobacco) will not affect your lab work such as with a Chem 7 or CBC, it may have a direct outcome on wound healing as smoking, particularly nicotine, can reduce oxygen to healing tissues.  We recommend you stop all smoking prior to surgery and follow you board certified plastic surgeons perioperative advice.

Hello and thank you for the question.  Smoking should not typically affect routine lab test results.  If you are smoking though, nicotine can be detected in your blood, urine and saliva.  Smoking is not recommended (as you can see below) and you do need to be honest with your surgeon if you are smoking.  Cosmetic surgery is expensive; smoking can potentially ruin the result of a perfectly performed procedure.  My recommendation is to be free of nicotine for four weeks prior to surgery.  Good luck!Sincerely,Dr. Michelle Spring

Smoking is not something that will show up in your lab work but it can show up in the urine test if they are testing for it.If you are still smoking and planning on undergoing a cosmetic procedure, my advice would be to inform your surgeon about this.  Smoking and plastic surgery do not work well together and you could be heading towards significant wound healing issues.Cigarettes contain nicotine as well as carbon monoxide.  Nicotine deceases the blood flow to the skin and tissues and carbon monoxide decreases oxygen delivery to the tissues.  Some patients state that they have had other surgeries while they were smoking and everything healed fine.  However, other surgeries are very different than plastic surgery procedures.  Hope that helps.

Most experts unanimously agree that smoking increases the rate of breast augmentation surgical complications significantly. Just about all plastic surgeons strongly recommend women to stop smoking and all nicotine products well in advance of breast augmentation with breast implants. Many plastic surgeons recommend stopping all tobacco products several months prior to surgery.Here is the reason why: the nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco products (including Nicorette gum, patches, etc) is a vasoconstrictor, meaning it makes the Smoking is a significant multiplier of many potential complications following surgery and breast augmentation with implants are no exception. Nicotine from smoking causes blood vessels to vasoconstrict ( tighten up). Over time, these constricted arteries and capillaries deliver less blood to the breast tissue which is needed for normal healing. Smokers therefore have an increased incidence of higher likelihood of complications such as infection, and in particular capsular contracture (hardening and distortion of the implants). General complications of surgery such as blood clots, anesthetic problems such as pneumonia are also increased. A scientific article in the Archives of Internal Medicine indicated that, among all forms of surgery, quitting smoking eight weeks prior was never associated with an increased risk of complications.In young patients you will probably statistically avoid these complications, why tempt fate by increasing your odds that something bad will happen.On a long term basis, smoking also causes accelerated aging of the skin and loss of elasticity. Hopefully these reasons will help give you the will power and courage to stop smoking.

Routine labs are not affected with smoking. A test may be done to confirm whether you quit smoking prior to surgery if you are proceeding with a high risk operation such as a face lift or tummy tuck. Be honest with your surgeon. Good luck

Thank you for your question. Smoking will not affect routine lab work like a chem7 or H/H( blood count). However, smoking does decrease blood flow to your skin. This can be a significant problem with certain procedures. You can check if someone has been smoking by obtaining a carboxyhemaglobin level. Also, smoking is BAD for you. You should inform your PS if you are smoking. Best of luck.