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| Dr. Joel Aronowitz |
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Okay, a little advice when you go to the surgeon, it turns out that products in cigarette smoke cause effects in the bloodstream that delay healing and are associated with a higher risk of complication. That's from a host of effects, probably mostly nicotine combination and nicotine causing vasoconstriction, in other words, tightening up of small blood vessels, which results in less blood flow to an area that needs to heal. And then also decreased oxygen carrying capacity of the blood because the carbon monoxide and cigarette smoke takes up some of the seats in a hemoglobin molecule that oxygen can't occupy. So I think it's pretty well known that if you're having surgery, you need to tell your surgeon that you smoke if you, if you indeed do smoke, but you should also tell your surgeon if you're smoking marijuana, if you're vaping, if you're using a water pipe, any of these things because even though it may not be tobacco that you're inhaling, many of the products of combustion that are going into your lungs end up in your bloodstream and have downstream effects that it's very helpful for your surgeon and your anesthesiologist to know about.
So be frank about your tobacco use as well as these other kinds of inhalational activities, as well as recreational drug use, because it's very important for the surgeon and the to know about these things. Don't worry about them judging you. They need to know these things in order to use good judgment in taking care of you. So just a little word to the wives for those going into the doctor for surgery.”
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