A new study has revealed that avoiding tobacco intake after a surgery can accelerate the healing of fractures in patients effectively.

Hans Nasell, Senior Surgical Consultant at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, said that a programme conductred by his team observed smoking cessation after fracture surgery reduces the risk of post-operative complications by nearly 50% in most of the subjects.

Smoking hinders circulation and reduces oxygen levels in blood, which affects short-term and long-term healing.

The earlier researches show that abstaining from smoking ahead of the surgeries lead to better healing and lesser postoperative complications.

The study is the first to have scrutinized the effects of giving up tobacco after surgery.

"Tobacco smoking is a major health and economic concern and is also known to have a significant negative effect on surgical outcomes," Nasell said.

He added that the basic objective of the team was to check whether the programme is effective in catalyzing the healing process.

The study was carried out at three hospitals in Stockholm wherein the daily smokers who went through surgeries for acute fractures were given cessation drive instructions.

The findings appeared in the June edition of the Journal of Bone and Joint.