The researchers included 212 patients in the study who underwent surgery for cervical spondylotic myelopathy. The researchers found:
1. Non-smokers reported a postoperative improvement of 1.53 points on the Nurick scale while smokers reported 0.6 points increase.
2. The improvement decreased progressively when the number of pack years and packs per day increased among the smoking patients.
3. The patients with a worse preoperative Nurick scores reported greater improvement among patients with fewer than 25 pack years.
4. The patients’ smoking status didn’t have an impact on the preoperative Nurick score.
5. The researchers concluded, “Smoking may have a directly toxic effect on the intrinsic healing capability of the spinal cord, particularly beyond 25 pack years.”
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