Doctors at a Toronto hospital have provoked controversy by saying they will no longer perform certain bone reconstruction operations on smokers.
Dr. Michael McKee, an assistant professor, division of orthopaedics at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, said a new study has shown that smokers don't recover from the surgery as well as non-smokers. The study was presented Thursday at a meeting of the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons in San Francisco.
"It boils down to if you don't stop smoking it's not worth doing it," McKee said. "That's how big an effect it has." . .
"We found that the people who are smokers had a much worse outcome in a variety of different parameters including the overall outcome, the quality of the bone formed and the complication rate compared to nonsmokers," McKee said.
McKee said that the negative effects of smoking following any kind of bone surgery are so significant that he insists that patients quit smoking.
Canadian Television (CTV) (Mar 2, 2001)