Smoking and drinking alcohol can negatively affect your health and wellbeing, and now you’re preparing for surgery it’s important to make a change. If you’ve had these habits for a long time it might seem impossible, but the resources and guidance on these pages are designed to support you to make the first steps.
In this video, hear from Dr Manik Chandra, Consultant Anaesthetist, about the effects of smoking and alcohol on your recovery after your operation.
Shape Up 4 Surgery – stopping smoking and drinking
Hi, my name is Dr. Chandra, and I’m a consultant anaesthetist with a specialist interest in ensuring that patients are in the best shape before their operation and beyond. Having an operation can seem frightening and daunting; however, it provides an excellent opportunity for you to modify your lifestyle for the better, and this will help you during your surgical journey and beyond. Smoking and drinking too much alcohol can lead to increased complications, including heart and lung problems, poor wound healing, and infections, and this can in turn lead to you having a longer hospital stay.
Smoking reduces your blood’s ability to carry oxygen, and this leads to increased heart and lung problems. We understand that kicking habits can be difficult and stressful, but we can put you in touch with specialist services to help you. You can make the biggest difference by changing your lifestyle habits, by reducing the amount of alcohol you drink, or by stopping smoking.
Quit Smoking
Smoking can have serious consequences for patients who are having surgery. Smoking cigarettes, e-cigarettes and chewing tobacco before having surgery in general mean that you will have a longer stay in hospital after your operation. If you stop, you will likely be able to go home sooner.
Our data shows that patients who smoke need to stay overnight in hospital at least one day longer compared to ex-smokers.
You should aim to stop smoking as soon as you can before your operation. This will help to prevent delayed wound healing, wound infection and chest infections (pneumonia). If you need help to stop smoking, please speak to your GP.
If you are having surgery that includes adding metal into your body, smoking increases the risk of this not working, and you may need another operation to fix this. Smoking also increases your chance of having a chest infection after your operation by 50%, so it’s really important to try and stop to help recovery more quickly.
Stopping smoking will bring immediate benefits to your health, including if you already have a smoking-related disease.
Resources:
- Quit Smoking (NHS) – information from the NHS to help you quit smoking for better health
- NHS Smokefree app – this free app allows you to track your progress, see how much you’re saving and get daily support
Alcohol
It is very important to safely reduce the amount of alcohol you drink before your operation. Alcohol can weaken your immune system, putting you at risk of developing complications and prolonging your recovery. You should aim to be alcohol free for at least 24 hours before your operation.
Our anaesthetists use a number of medicines to help you sleep during your operation. These drugs also affect your heart rate and breathing and alcohol affects these too. This means it is important that you do not drink alcohol in the weeks leading up to your surgery so that your heart and lungs are working well.
If you need support to stop drinking, you should get advice about this from your GP.
Resources
- Alcohol Change UK unit calculator – find out how many units are in a drink so you can choose a lower unit alternative.
- Try Dry app – download the app to track your drinking and set personalised goals for cutting down.
- Get alcohol support – find local support if you don’t think you can reduce your drinking before your operation.