SMOKING CESSATION IN RELATION TO CARDIAC PROCEDURES

In order to compare smoking cessation associated with coronary artery bypass graft surgery (surgery) with that associated with other cardiac procedures (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (angioplasty) or angiography alone), the authors contacted, in 1985-1988, 135 patients (smokers at baseline) at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one year or more following one or the other of these procedures and obtained a follow-up smoking history. One year after the procedure, 55% of surgery patients, 25% of angioplasty patients, and 14% of angiography patients reported that they were nonsmokers (p < 0.025 and p < 0.001 for surgery vs. angioplasty or angiography, respectively). These results persisted after control for the number of vessels with stenosis of greater-than-or-equal-to 50%. These data provide rationale for continued monitoring of behavior change throughout the course of clinical trials in which surgical and non-surgical interventions are compared with one another, and support the importance of evaluating effects of exposure to various cardiac procedures in studies of smoking behavior in coronary heart disease patients.