Ecig Benefits for Surgery Patients
America’s leading hospital pioneers the use of ecigs as a harm reduction tool
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by Dave Cross
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It is incredible that a novel approach to harm reduction is being explored at Mayo: “Cigarette smoking is a known risk factor for postoperative complications. Quitting or cutting down on cigarettes around the time of surgery may reduce these risks. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of using electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) to help patients achieve this goal, regardless of their intent to attempt long-term abstinence.”
Smoking impacts on the body’s ability to form blood clots and recover from surgery. Smokers also exhibit far higher levels of post-operative complications and so the Mayo Clinic team looked at how the use of electronic cigarettes could improve recovery rates. Smokers facing elective surgery were offered the opportunity to use ecigs instead, and provided with equipment to use two weeks before and two weeks after their operation.
Advice was given on how to vape and the patients were advised to vape whenever they fancied a cigarette. The team recorded how often they vaped and then carried out follow-up studies to see how their behaviour had altered after undergoing surgery. In total, 105 patients were approached and 80 of these agreed to take part in the study.
The results were stunning: the number of cigarettes consumed fell in half, over 50% of patients using electronic cigarettes continued using them as a substitute for cigarettes and 17% of patients gave up completely; a resounding harm-reduction success. Not only that, but success was noted in the reduction of patients’ risk for surgical complications and healing difficulties.
The team concluded that: “ENDS use is feasible in adult smokers scheduled for elective surgery and is associated with a reduction in perioperative cigarette consumption. These results support further exploration of ENDS as a means to help surgical patients reduce or eliminate their cigarette consumption around the time of surgery.”
Not only is this ground breaking in its novel use of vaping technology but for it to come from such a widely respected institution could well have an incredible impact on attitudes throughout the American medical community – and probably further afield too.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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