Smokers Advised to Quit Before Plastic Surgery Please Post

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Smokers Advised to Quit Before Plastic Surgery

Smokers seeking plastic surgery should kick the habit before going under

the knife, plastic surgeons advise.

Smoking increases the risk of post-surgical complications, particularly

with major procedures such as breast reconstruction and facelifts. It

also lowers the odds that patients undergoing elective surgery will be

happy with the cosmetic results, researchers report in the September

issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Smoking, with its ill effects on the circulatory system and wound

healing, has long been known to hinder patients' recovery from an array

of surgical procedures.

" Nicotine, carbon monoxide, and many other toxic tobacco by-products

clearly interfere with the dynamics of normal wound repair,'' write Drs.

K. Krueger and Rod J. Rohrich of the University of Texas

Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

In the field of plastic surgery, the researchers note, operations with

the highest risk of smoking-related complications include breast

procedures, facelifts and abdominoplasty (''tummy tucks''). Such

procedures, they explain, involve injury to large flaps of skin, and

smoking may interfere with healing.

One recent study of women undergoing breast reconstruction after

mastectomy showed that smokers had higher rates of necrosis, or tissue

death, in skin flaps at the surgical site.

Source: Infobeat News

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