On April 28, 2015, the medical journal BMC Anesthesiology published an interesting and informative research article entitled Preoperative smoking cessation counseling activities of anesthesiologists: a cross-sectional study. This study was conducted by a research team lead by Matilde Zaballos, Head of the Department of Anesthesiology at Hospital Universitario Gregorio Maranon in Madrid Spain.
It is a well-known fact that smokers face increased risks of surgical complications. This study aimed to find how frequently anesthesiologists delivered pre-operative encouragement to quit.
The researchers conducted their study by evaluating questionnaires that were completed by 1,165 patients preparing to undergo surgical procedures. Of these patients, 217 were smokers and 34% were scheduled for major surgery.
Based on these patient-completed evaluations, the research team discovered that in 85% of the cases, anesthesiologist asked patients about their smoking habits prior to surgery. However, only 31% advised smokers about the health risks and only 23% advised patients to quit smoking prior to surgery. Further, in only 3% of the cases studied were patients offered assistance with quitting.
These figures contradicted the results of anesthesiologist-completed evaluations in which 75% of the doctors questioned stated that they frequently or almost always advised patients about the health risks of smoking during pre-operative counseling.
The study concluded that there are “significant discrepancies between direct patient surveys of preoperative smoking cessation counseling activities by anesthesiologists and the self-reported perceptions of the anesthesiologist,” and advised that, “future studies are urgently needed to evaluate the provision of educational materials and other interventions to improve smoking cessation counseling rates among anesthesiologists and to narrow these discrepancies.”
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