Smoking associated with major urologic cancer surgical complications

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a study presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Urological Association in New Orleans, Louisiana, researchers have found that smokers and previous smokers are more likely to experience complications during and after major urologic cancer surgery and that quitting smoking for even just 1 year significantly improves surgical outcomes.

For the study, researchers identified 9,014 patients who underwent surgery for bladder, kidney, or prostate cancer from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database and identified.

Results showed current smokers had an increased risk for pulmonary and kidney complications and longer duration of hospitalization after prostate cancer surgery. In addition, patients with bladder cancer who currently smoked had an increased risk for requiring further surgery and former smokers had an increased risk for readmission.

Patients with prostate cancer who had not smoked for at least 1 year prior to surgery had a similar risk for surgical complications as non-smokers and had a significantly lower risk than current smokers.

The findings suggest that health care providers should motivate patients to quit smoking prior to undergoing major surgery in order to reduce the risk for complications.