Warning from plastic surgeons

Smokers must quit before undergone plastic surgery

21/09/2001 - People who smoke and are considering plastic surgery must quit cigarette before the procedure, noticed the plastic surgeons in the September edition of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery magazine.

According to the specialists Jeffrey K. Krueger and Rod J. Rohrich, of the University Texas Medical Southwestern Center of the United States, smoking increases the risk of post-surgical complications, in important procedures as breasts reconstruction or liftings. On the other hand, the cigarette also can make descend the degree from satisfaction of the patient operated by own election with respect to the aesthetic results of the procedure.

"Nicotine, carbon monoxide and many other toxic derivatives of the tobacco, interfere clearly with the dynamic of the normal reconstruction of the wounds", explained the surgeons. In the field of the plastic surgery, they said, the operations with the highest risk of complications related to the cigarette include the mammary procedures, liftings and the tummy tuck interventions.

The surgeons stressed that the patients do not have to smoke during four weeks previous to any aesthetic or reconstructive surgery nor during the four later weeks to the intervention.

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2001;108:1063-1073.