Should all patients who have received kidney transplant be screened and counseled on tobacco use?
Yes. The same strategies to prevent and treat tobacco use in the general population should be applied to all transplant recipients. Smoking at the time of transplantation is associated with graft failure and death. In addition, smoking has been associated with posttransplantation malignancies. Kidney transplant recipients who stopped smoking more than 5 years before transplantation had a 34% risk reduction in cardiovascular events. There are no interactions between immunosuppressive medications and tobacco cessation medications that would obviate their administration.
