Can Nitro Bid ointment be used post operatively on a neck lift if patient is a smoker?

If nitro paste is used in the postoperative setting for facial aesthetic surgery, it is generally applied as a "rescue" measure for skin that appears less than healthy.  The best approach for a smoker considering a face or necklift is to stop smoking for 6 weeks prior and 6 weeks after the proedure

I do not recommend using nitropaste prophylactically to try and avoid complications from smoking. It would be much better if you stopped smoking permanently. If this is not possible, I would recommend quitting at least two weeks prior to surgery and 2 weeks following surgery.

I have found that patient can get amazingly motivated to stop smoking for face and neck lift surgery.  It represents a time of self improvement and smoking cessation falls in line with this thinking.  If you can stop for 3 weeks or so before surgery, my guess is that you will stop permanently.  I would not try to overcome the risks of smoking with such topicals as nitropaste.  Be honest with your surgeon---have surgery when you've stopped smoking or else you will likely have complications.

Nitro paste will cause a dilation of the veins in the area to which it is applied.  Smokers primarily have an arterial flow deficit.  Notro paste can be used as a option when things are nto going well, but you don't want to be in the situtation in which things are not going well.  Stop smoking 4 weeks prior to your surgery. 

In order to minimize the risks that smoking creates on a face/necklift procedure, it is best to discontinue smoking altogether before surgery. In my practice I have patients stop smoking 1 month prior to surgery and no smoking for 1 month following surgery. Hence, one might as well quit altogether...a good time to consider it. In addition, I would not count on any ointment to salvage a problem with the skin caused by smoking.

tram523, I'm sure your surgeon has told you that smoking and lifts do not get along. Most offices have a policy concerng when you should quite and for how long after the surgery. Should you get an ischemic flap there is no telling how much Nitro Bid would help if at all. Good luck!