The Effects of Nicotine on Fracture Healing: an Experimental Study

Abstract

This study is aimed to evaluate treatment research the effects of nicotine on fracture healing. Thirty rats were used. Nicotine was injected subcutaneously at a dosage of 2 mg/kg/day to group A and 4 mg/kg/day to group B. Control group (group C) received 0.5 ml/kg/day saline solution. Three weeks later, transverse fractures were performed on to the left ulnar and radial bones for each animal. Animals were designed to one of two follow-up groups which were euthanized either 2 or 3 weeks. On the 14th day of fracture, randomly chosen five rats from each group of A, B and C were sacrificed. At the 21st day of fracture, same procedure performed for all remaining rats. Both had surgical and histopathological evaluation were performed. Transverse fractures performed on the 21st day of study were confirmed by direct radiograms. One rat died spontaneously before completing the study was therefore excluded from the final analysis. The results indicate that healing process proceeds in each group. There was no significant difference in fracture healing between groups A and B two weeks after the fracture. However, fracture healing was significantly delayed in nicotine treated group comparing to control group. We continue to support the notion that nicotine has a negative effect on fracture healing.