Monitoring of Exhaled Carbon Monoxide to Promote Pre-operative Smoking Cessation

Smoking causes 90% of all lung cancer deaths among men and 80% of lung cancer deaths in women. Surgery is a great opportunity to help patients quit smoking. Smokers are at increased risk for heart, lung, and wound complications around the time of surgery. Even a brief abstinence from smoking can produce benefits. Surgery can also motivate smokers to quit spontaneously. If the investigators can take advantage of this great opportunity, they may be able to help many smokers quit using simple means. However, currently most smokers continue to smoke cigarette on the morning before surgery, as shown by the measurement of exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) on the morning of surgery. CO is one of the many poisons in cigarette smoke. It only stays in the body for a few hours. By asking smokers to blow into a small machine, the investigators can test the CO level in the smokers' body and thus know if they have just smoked within the past few hours. The goal of this study is to determine the role of carbon monoxide monitoring as a means to decrease cigarette smoking before surgery. The investigators will identify a group of smokers who are scheduled for surgery and invite them to participate. One or two days before surgery, half of the patients will receive a brief advice about quit smoking. The other half of patients will be told that their CO will be checked before surgery, in addition to the brief advice. On the morning of surgery, the investigators will then check their CO level to determine if they have followed the advice. In order to have a better understanding about the factors influencing patients' intent to quit smoking, the investigators will ask all study participants to fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire is constructed according to behavioral theories which provide good framework for studying people's intent and behavior. If the investigators are successful, they will determine how much of an impact the message of CO testing has on smoking before surgery. The investigators will also gain insights into facilitators and barriers to smoking cessation around the time of surgery. The brief intervention evaluated in this study has potential to be disseminated and to promote the long term health of surgical patients.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Smoking
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Informing surgical patients about CO monitoring; Behavioral: a brief intervention recommending preoperative abstinence from smoking

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 169
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Minnesota
    • Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905
      • Mayo Clinic

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Patients ≥ 18 yrs. scheduled for elective non-cardiac surgery at Mayo Clinic Rochester;
2. Current smoking, defined as > 100 cigarettes lifetime consumption and self-report of smoking every day.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. An inability to understand consent procedures;
2. Inability to complete a written questionnaire.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: CO reminder; A brief intervention that recommends preoperative fasting from cigarettes and that informs patients that their smoking status will be checked before surgery using inhaled CO monitoring will decrease their exposure to cigarette smoke prior to surgery	Behavioral: Informing surgical patients about CO monitoring; A brief intervention that recommends preoperative fasting from cigarettes and that informs patients that their smoking status will be checked before surgery using inhaled CO monitoring will decrease their exposure to cigarette smoke prior to surgery
Placebo Comparator: no CO reminder; a brief intervention that recommends fasting but does not mention that CO will be checked	Behavioral: a brief intervention recommending preoperative abstinence from smoking; a brief intervention that recommends fasting but does not mention that CO will be checked

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Preoperative Carbon Monoxide Levels		the morning of surgery
Exhaled CO Level Measured Immediately Prior to Surgery	On the morning of surgery, as matter of clinical routine all patients receiving surgery requiring anesthesia services at one of the two main surgical facilities at Mayo Clinic Rochester and who self-report as a current smoker are asked about their typical cigarette consumption (cigarettes per day), if they have smoked cigarettes today, and have their exhaled CO levels measured (Micro Smokerlyzer; Bedfont, United Kingdom). This information is entered into the clinical record. The CO monitors are maintained by the Division of Respiratory Therapy, including regular calibration.	The median time from study assessment at POE to surgery was 1 day with an interquartile range of 1 to 3 days.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Mayo Clinic
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: David O Warner, MD, Mayo Clinic

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Shi Y, Ehlers S, Warner DO. The theory of planned behavior as applied to preoperative smoking abstinence. PLoS One. 2014 Jul 24;9(7):e103064. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103064. eCollection 2014.
• Shi Y, Ehlers S, Hinds R, Baumgartner A, Warner DO. Monitoring of exhaled carbon monoxide to promote preoperative smoking abstinence. Health Psychol. 2013 Jun;32(6):714-7. doi: 10.1037/a0029504. Epub 2012 Aug 27.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: January 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 1, 2011
• Study Completion (Actual): June 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 13, 2009
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 16, 2009
• First Posted (Estimate): November 17, 2009

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): August 22, 2011
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 25, 2011
• Last Verified: July 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: surgery
• Other Study ID Numbers: 09-006998