[Perioperative tobacco cessation: potential benefits and principles of management]. / Sevrage tabagique en période péri-opératoire: bénéfices potentiels et modalités de prise en charge.

Thirty percent of surgical patients undergoing routine surgery are smokers, and smoking is an additional risk for these patients. During the perioperative period, smokers are more prone than non smokers to present either systemic complications interesting the cardiovascular and pulmonary functions or specific complications related to the surgical procedure, such as infections, wound problems and delayed osteosynthesis. Therefore, coming-off from smoking addiction is an obvious prerequisite in these patients. Diagnosing smoking habit, evaluating its severity and its systemic repercussions on vital functions, as well as proposing an efficacious and appropriate help to smokers before surgery become one essential objective of pre-anesthetic assessment.

[Perioperative tobacco cessation: a crucial period to overcome clinical inertia and poor compliance]. / Sevrage tabagique en préopératoire: une période propice pour lutter contre l'inertie et le défaut d'observance.

Smoking concerns 30% of the patients scheduled to anesthesia. Tobacco is one of the most important risk factors for postoperative complications. There are two classes of complications: those induced by the smoking habits on the cardiovascular and the respiratory systems, and those that predispose to other complications by direct interference with processes required for the success of surgery: healing and immune responses. The preoperative period represents a crucial period to overcome clinical inertia and profit of a better compliance. Some strategies applicable by the general practitioner and the anesthesiologist during the preoperative consultation to establish smoking cessation and help the patient to comply with are proposed.