The Association of Preoperative Smoking With Postoperative Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Total Hip Arthroplasty

Preoperative smoking is an easily modifiable risk factor and has associations with increased postoperative morbidity and mortality. It is important to clarify these risks for specific procedures to provide improved and evidence-based quality of care. The purpose of the present study aims to identify the associations between preoperative smoking and 30-day postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty.

We used R statistics to conduct a multivariable logistic regression analysis followed by a propensity score matching analysis to explore the association between preoperative smoking and postoperative outcomes.

A final cohort of 67,897 patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty was selected for analysis. After adjusting for potential confounders, the odds of postoperative pulmonary complications (odds ratio [OR], 1.352; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.075-1.700; P = .01), infectious complications (OR, 1.310; 95% CI, 1.094-1.567; P = .003), and extended hospital stay (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.099-1.251; P < .001) were all significantly higher in the smoking population. After propensity matching these cohorts, both infectious complications ( P = .017) and extended hospital stays ( P = .001) were significantly higher in smoking patients.

After controlling for potential confounding variables, our multivariable regression analysis revealed a significant increase in pulmonary and infectious complications as well as significantly longer hospital stays in our smoking population. When using a propensity score matching analysis, an increase in infectious complications as well as extended hospital stay was observed. Given the concerning prevalence of smoking in the United States, our data provide updated information toward a growing mass of literature supporting smoking cessation before surgical operations.