By Monica Jaramillo
Recently published data indicated there was an increased chance for current smokers to have wound complications following total hip or total knee arthroplasty and the data showed there was a greater total complication risk in current and former smokers who underwent these total joint arthroplasty.
Investigators used the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Improvement Program database and identified 78,191 patients who underwent total hip arthroplasty (THA) or total knee arthroplasty (TKA) between 2006 and 2012. A data abstracter collected morbidity and mortality data for the patients at 30 postoperative days. 
Patients were grouped by smoking status as nonsmokers, current smokers or former smokers and categorized according to lifetime pack-years of smoking (0 pack-years, 1 to 20 pack-years, 21 to 40 pack-years or > 40 pack-years. The researchers used univariate and multivariate analyses to compare mortality rates, wound complications and total complications at 30 days.