Has anyone been told they must stop smoking prior to surgery? No one has mentioned it to me yet. I want to quit, but I'm just curious.

In the infomation sheet we got it said u must be smoke free for 4 weeks before surgery and in the pre op class they told us that too ...i dont smoke anymore so i wasnt worried about it but i thought 4 weeks is a long time

I quit about 11 years ago, but if I still smoked, I doubt I would quit because of this surgery. I think it's pretty standard to say this before any type of surgery. Hopefully you can quit, though!

Patients who are planning to have lap band surgery are asked to quit smoking six to eight weeks before surgery. Patients who do not smoke have fewer complications and it takes at least a month for the lungs to recover. Smoking damages the lungs which increases the chance of surgical complications, anesthetic problems, and developing pneumonia after surgery. Also, the goal of weight loss surgery is about improving your health and smoking contradicts this desired result.

This is what I found out about it. I have read some Drs won't do surgery if you smoke. Not sure just what I have read. You should stop

and add to your new healthy lifestyle your heading towards. My adult son just stopped at Christmas time and I am so happy and proud of him.

cheri

Your blood vessels constrict (get smaller) when you smoke so you cant heal as well and are at a higher risk for infection.

My surgeon requires being smoke free for 6 months prior to surgery.

Never was mentioned, so depends on your physician. After, surgery I'm down to 1 or 2 cigs a day or none at all, I have no desire too, just use to doing it. Hoping to be totally smoke free by end of month. Good luck.

I had to be niccotine free for 6 weeks prior to surgery. Being niccotine free meant to patches or gum or anything. I did it, and they didn't just take my word for it! I had to do a urine test to check. Almost 3 weeks post op and haven't smoked! Good luck to you!

My surgeon requested that I quit 6 weeks before surgery, but said it was up to me. The reason he said he wanted me to quit was because, according to him, the band is put in kinda close to the lungs and he said the lungs can get pretty beat up during the procedure. He said if I still smoked up to the time of the procedure, I would have a higher chance of needing to stay on the ventilator for a while after surgery. I ended up quitting about 8 months before my surgery. It would have only been 6-8 weeks before surgery, but my doctor was in a bad car accident and wasn't operating for a while.

Smoking does interfere with the healing process, and slows it down considerably. One of my sons is an endodontist, and he has told me that there are a number of oral surgical procedures that patients who smoke will not be considered for if they don't make the choice to quit smoking.

My surgeon requires that you be smoke free for a minimum of 30 days pre-op, and another 30 days post-op.