Current Smoking Status Is Not a Risk Factor for Perioperative Outcomes in Patients with Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Who Underwent Craniotomy Repair

Abstract

BackgroundAneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage is a rupture leading to blood accumulating in the subarachnoid region. Smoking status often is a risk factor for postoperative complications for vascular procedures. This study aims to retrospectively examine the effect of being a current tobacco smoker on postoperative outcomes in nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage patients. MethodsPatients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage who underwent craniotomy were identified in the ACS-NSQIP database. The 30-day perioperative outcomes of current smokers were compared to that of control, which was patients who have not smoked tobacco in the past year. Postoperative outcomes included death, cardiac complications, stroke, operation time greater than four hours, bleeding, and other events. Additionally, this studied examined the same surgical outcomes in patients over age 65. ResultsWe found no significant difference between these two groups across all adverse outcomes analyzed. In age>65, we again found no significant different between these two groups across all adverse outcomes analyzed. ConclusionsThis study shows that although current tobacco smoker status is commonly a risk factor for vascular diseases and postoperative complications, it is not a risk factor for the postoperative variables we analyzed during craniotomy for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Additional research should be conducted to determine if different procedures to treat aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage may have different outcomes among smokers.