Smoking and postdural puncture headache

Objective: postdural puncture headache (pdph) is a well known complication of spinal anesthesia. many factors like age,sex,pregnancy,previous history of pdph,needle size and shape,clinical experience of the operator am involved in its development. however,there is little information about the relationship between tobacco exposure and pdph in the current literature. we aimed to investigate the possible relationship between smoking habit and pdph development,taking into consideration the effects of tobacco on coagulation cascade. method: data of 254 pregnant female patients undeiwent cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia were retrospectively collected for the study. postoperative 1 week records of the patients were evaluated and headache incidences were noted,as well as onset times and durations from the patient files. results: data of 254 patients were collected for the study. patients were divided into two groups regarding their smoking status as group s (smokers,n=100) and group n (non-smokers,n=154). twelve (12%) patients in the group s and 12 (7.8%) in the group n had experienced pdph. no significant difference was found between the two groups. conclusion: tobacco exposure doesn't seem to affect the risk of pdph. more studies can be made in this respect,considering scarcity of the material regarding the issue in the current literature. further studies should contain data about the quantity of tobacco exposure.