Mayo Clinic Reveals Results of A Ground Breaking New Ecig Experiment
E-Cigarette News February 6, 2016 Katie Bercham
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When it comes to medical research, there is no other hospital in the United States more respected than Mayo Clinic. When the doctors at Mayo release new information, the world listens because they know this hospital is trustworthy and on the cutting edge of medical research. Recently, the Mayo Clinic released results from their latest experiment in smoking cessation. After noting that smokers face far higher risks of complications following surgery, researchers decided to offer patients “electronic nicotine delivery devices” both before and after their surgeries. The goal was to see if the ecigs could help patients successfully reduce tobacco consumption or eliminate cigarette use altogether.
Smokers who were facing upcoming elective surgeries were provided with the “electronic nicotine delivery” devices and encouraged to use them anytime they got a craving for a cigarette. Researchers kept records of their tobacco consumption and behavioral changes while using the ecigs and followed up 30-days later to see if there had been any significant change.
At the time of follow up, the Mayo Clinic team found that 17 percent had already completely quit smoking. Another 51 percent said they intended to continue using the devices in the future. Most remarkably, cigarette consumption was drastically reduced after patients had access to ecigarettes. “Average cigarette consumption decreased from 15.6 per person to 7.6 over the study period,” the study concluded. Ultimately, researchers said that ecig “use is feasible and well-accepted in surgical patients.”
This is the first time we’ve seen a prestigious hospital praise ecigarettes for their potential to help smokers. Now that Mayo Clinic took the leap, it’s safe to say that other doctors might feel more confident to recommend ecigarettes to their patients, especially those facing surgery. The medical community is well aware that other nicotine replacement therapies just aren’t that effective, but all signs show that ecigs can work and actually make a remarkable difference in a relatively short period of time.
Do you think other doctors will be more accepting of ecigarettes since the Mayo Clinic had such good results? Could this change the public perception of ecigs in the United States?
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/electronic_cigarette/comments/44ygtl/mayo_clinic_reveals_some_good_stuff/
Edit: Here is an abstract of the published study
Feasibility of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems in Surgical Patients
- Margaret Nolan, MD,
- Scott Leischow, PhD,
- Ivana Croghan, PhD,
- Sandeep Kadimpati, BDS,
- Andrew Hanson, BS,
- Darrell Schroeder, MS and
- David O. Warner, MD
- Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Nicotine Dependence Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
- Corresponding Author: David O. Warner, MD, Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street Southwest, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. Telephone: 507-255-4288; Fax: 507-255-7300; E-mail: warner.david@mayo.edu
- Received October 20, 2015.
- Accepted December 29, 2015.
Introduction: Cigarette smoking is a known risk factor for postoperative complications. Quitting or cutting down on cigarettes around the time of surgery may reduce these risks. This study aimed to determine the feasibility of using electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) to help patients achieve this goal, regardless of their intent to attempt long-term abstinence.
Methods: An open-label observational study was performed of cigarette smoking adults scheduled for elective surgery at Mayo Clinic Rochester and seen in the pre-operative evaluation clinic between December 2014 and June 2015. Subjects were given a supply of ENDS to use prior to and 2 weeks after surgery. They were encouraged to use them whenever they craved a cigarette. Daily use of ENDS was recorded, and patients were asked about smoking behavior and ENDS use at baseline, 14 days and 30 days.
Results: Of the 105 patients approached, 80 (76%) agreed to participate; five of these were later excluded. Among the 75, 67 (87%) tried ENDS during the study period. At 30-day follow-up, 34 (51%) who had used ENDS planned to continue using them. Average cigarette consumption decreased from 15.6 per person/d to 7.6 over the study period (P < .001). At 30 days, 11/67 (17%) reported abstinence from cigarettes.
Conclusion: ENDS use is feasible in adult smokers scheduled for elective surgery and is associated with a reduction in perioperative cigarette consumption. These results support further exploration of ENDS as a means to help surgical patients reduce or eliminate their cigarette consumption around the time of surgery.
Implications: Smoking in the perioperative period increases patients’ risk for surgical complications and healing difficulties, but new strategies are needed to help patients quit or cut down during this stressful time. These pilot data suggest that ENDS use is feasible and well-accepted in surgical patients, and worthy of exploration as a harm reduction strategy in these patients.
- © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
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