Smoking Characteristics and Readiness-to-Quit Status Among Smokers Attending Preoperative Assessment Clinic - A Prospective Cohort Study.

A thorough understanding of smokers' smoking characteristics, barriers to quit and readiness-to-quit status are crucial to establishing a successful multidisciplinary perioperative smoking cessation program. Counselling should address knowledge deficits and be tailored to a patient's stage-of-change in order to seize this precious perioperative "teachable moment".