The effect of tobacco use on outcomes of laparoscopic and open ventral hernia repairs: a review of the NSQIP dataset

Introduction Tobacco smoking is a known risk factor for complications after major surgical procedures. The full effect of tobacco use on these complications has not been studied over large populations for ventral hernia repairs. This effect is more important as the preoperative conditioning, and optimization of patients is adopted. We sought to use the prospectively collected ACS-NSQIP dataset to evaluate respiratory and infectious complications for patients undergoing both laparoscopic and open ventral hernia repairs. Methods The ACS-NSQIP dataset was queried for patients who underwent open or laparoscopic ventral hernia repairs, by primary procedure CPT codes, between years 2009–2012. Smoking use was registered as defined by the ACS-NSQIP, as both a current smoker (within the prior 12 months) or as a history of smoking (having ever smoked). Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to investigate postoperative complications for 30-day morbidity and mortality by smoking status while adjusting for preoperative risk factors. Results The majority of cases were open, 82 %, compared to laparoscopic 18 %. Sex was evenly distributed with 58 % female and 42 % male; however, there was a difference in the distribution of current smokers ( p = 0.03). On analysis there were significantly more respiratory complications ( p = 0.0003) and infectious complications ( p