Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access published online on August 10, 2006
Alcohol and Alcoholism, doi:10.1093/alcalc/agl059
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1 School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Drug Health Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown NSW 2050, Australia
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Aim: To assess the effectiveness of a tailored pre-operative intervention for excessive alcohol consumption in reducing post-operative complications and alcohol consumption thereafter. Methods: Patients scheduled for elective surgery requiring at least overnight hospitalisation were screened for alcohol misuse. Consenting, eligible participants with
Received December 21, 2005
Revised June 6, 2006
Accepted July 6, 2006
Article
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A TAILORED INTERVENTION FOR EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION PRIOR TO ELECTIVE SURGERY
SWATI SHOURIE 1, KATHERINE M. CONIGRAVE 2, ELIZABETH M. PROUDE 1, JEANETTE E. WARD 3, SONIA E. WUTZKE 3, and PAUL S. HABER 4 *
2 School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Discipline of Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Drug Health Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown NSW 2050, Australia
3 School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
4 School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Discipline of Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; Drug Health Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown NSW 2050, Australia
PAUL S. HABER, E-mail: phaber{at}mail.usyd.edu.au
Abstract 
7 days to surgery at the time of screening were offered an intervention and those with <7 days to surgery were provided usual care. Results: Over a period of 2 years and 10 months, 3139 patients were screened to recruit 136 participants. Baseline analysis revealed a mean age of 53 (±15.8) years and a mean consumption of 71 g/day (±48.1). The intervention group (n = 45) did not differ significantly from controls (n = 91) in age, consumption, and number of current smokers, but there were significantly more women in the control group. There was no difference between the groups in major or minor complications experienced, or length of stay after controlling for age, gender, and baseline consumption. At 6-month follow-up there was a significant reduction in drinking for the entire study population. Conclusion: The study did not demonstrate any beneficial effect of the pre-operative intervention on post-operative complications. The relatively short time to surgery, intervention by a non-member of the surgical team, challenges to recruitment and reduced consumption in the control group may have limited the ability of the study to detect a significant effect of the intervention.
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