Dr. Sahota, MD and colleagues at the 25th anniversary meeting of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons presented a poster on their findings with regard to smoking and the incidence of complications. They used the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database. They reviewed 60,353 patients and included 12,588 from that who had appropriate inclusion criteria. Of that group, there were 1501 smokers. After adjusting for differences, they found that smoking was associated with higher rates of overall surgical complications, surgical site infection, and readmission following surgery for hip replacement. They noted that smoking is the modifiable condition that adversely affects outcomes after hip replacement and smoking cessation should be attempted prior to elective joint replacement surgery.
