Posted on 07/15/2006 7:01:38 AM PDT by Moonman62
Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoking, both because they are small and still growing and because they're often a "captive audience" for tobacco smoke. Now, researchers identify another problem: a greater risk for respiratory complications during outpatient surgical procedures.
Dwight Jones, MD, of Children's Hospital Boston and Neil Bhattacharyya, MD, from Brigham and Women's Hospital followed 405 children, 168 of whom came from households with smokers. The children were having day surgical procedures at Children's, ranging from drainage of middle-ear fluid to circumcision to hernia repair. All had general anesthesia and received oxygen through a face mask.
Children who lived with smokers had a higher incidence of respiratory problems during surgery than those from nonsmoking households: excessive mucus secretion (38 percent vs. 8 percent), breath-holding (15 percent vs. 6 percent), constriction of the larynx or bronchial tubes that potentially could impair breathing (29 percent vs. 5 percent), and actual airway obstruction (29 percent vs. 11 percent). Respiratory problems were similarly increased in the recovery room, but to a lesser extent.
"It was in the wakeup period in the operating room that they did the worst," says Jones, a pediatric otolaryngologist at Children's. "We had a harder time waking up children coming out from anesthesia because of choking, gagging and secretions."
Some children who lived with smokers required additional airway support, including bronchodilators and supplementary oxygen, and had to stay in the hospital overnight. With the exception of actual airway obstruction, the more cigarettes smoked per day in the home, the more severe the children's respiratory complications during surgery.
The study results, published in the July 1 issue of the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, suggest that children exposed to secondhand smoke may require more attention to their airways during surgery, particularly if they are receiving ventilation by face mask, the usual method for minor surgical procedures and in patients with heart or lung disease. Instead of face-mask ventilation, anesthesiologists may now want to consider placing an endotracheal tube to protect children against airway constriction and prevent aspiration of mucus, Jones says.
"Anesthesiologists need to have a higher level of suspicion when taking a patient history, and should find out whether the parents smoke or if there's any tobacco smoked in the home," Jones says. "Based on our findings, they might be more likely to tell parents that their child might have more problems during wakeup from anesthesia and might need to be admitted overnight, rather than go home the same day."
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Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children's Hospital Boston today is the nation's leading pediatric medical center, the largest provider of health care to Massachusetts children, and the primary pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. In addition to 347 pediatric and adolescent inpatient beds and comprehensive outpatient programs, Children's houses the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries benefit both children and adults. More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, nine members of the Institute of Medicine and 11 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children's research community. For more information about the hospital visit: http://www.childrenshospital.org.
It's a wonder that cigarette smoking hasn't caused the destruction and demise of the entire human race by now.
Here-we-go-again-ping.
I will use one of Rush's favorite sayings here..."follow the money".
I would like a more thorough study of the problem. I smoke cigars. My wife despises the smell, and complains... I need to go study some more!
This ought to be in my neighbors New Holland spreader.
He's spreading $hit in the west pasture today.
I've noticed all the "children of smokers" headlines recently. There's even a tear-jerking ad campaign in the subway.
Just because I can see the Smoking Police aiming what they clearly think is their silver bullet (it's worked for so many others) -- blatant pseudo-moral sloganeering -- doesn't mean I'm in favor of making children breathe cigarette smoke, by the way. I am not a smoker, I can't stand cigarette smoke, I don't know how I survived as the children of two chain smokers (it might explain a lot of things).
But I detest seeing any group marginalized by the powers that be for sport and/or a basis point or two on the balance sheet an insurance company's balance sheet.
That sword will cut both ways.
that is, "on the balance sheet of an insurance company."
The most serious threat to a child today is an abortionist.
If cigarettes are so deadly, then why is abortion legal; it is after all cold blooded murder.
Oh, that's right.
Abortion is a woman's choice.
We can't have any other choices though, can we?
Yes, and people that live with terrorists are more likely to get killed than those that don't.
Do not ask me to feel sorry for people who still smoke cigarettes...
Neoprohibitionism requires a foundation of lies and useful idiots to spread them.
We should have all died about 30 years ago, you know.
And Bush hasn't done anything about this! That b*st*ard! Where are Bubba and Hitlery when we need them?!
If you bothered to read the article you would see that the purpose of the article is to inform anesthesiologists so that they may provide better care for their patients.
Breaking:
New study finds people who breathe second-hand smoke will eventually die.
"the purpose of the article is to inform anesthesiologists so that they may provide better care for their patients"
I did a research paper compiling information from studies on the effects of second-hand smoke on children living in homes where there was at least one smoker. The most significant finding, in my view, was that there was an increase in dental caries in children living in those homes.
Why do they never come out and say, "This is the way it is"?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Why is it always "suggests" or "it may be" or (my favorite) "it's possible".
"It's possible" that my aunt is really my uncle in drag. But's it's not very probable knowing my uncles the way I do.
I was a kid in the 60s in Pittsburgh, during that time frame, people smoked everywhere. Restaurants, grocery stores, department stores, offices, everywhere.
And if you stepped out of your house for a breath of fresh air, every vehicle on the road spewed noxious fumes. The mills were in full operation, the outside air smelled like rotten eggs, sewage, whatever. You could tell what part of town you were in based on the peculiar smell.
Yet, I and millions of other kids lived. And the rate of asthma and ADD and ADHD and a hundred other pediatric ailments was a whole lot less than it is in the current day.
I wonder if mankind is in rapid devolution, and becoming less adaptable to a varied environment. It would certainly seem so, if there is any merit to all of the reports of these scientists
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