I've worked in the operating room for over 30 years. As Rickajho said, your surgeon and anesthesiologist should be aware that you are a vapor.
The problem with smokers and surgery is primarily with anesthesia, and secondarily with tissue healing. Anesthesiologists have to deal with the long term complications that come with smoking: COPD, chronic bronchitis, emphysema. Smokers wake up from anesthesia with thickened airway secretions and often cough violently when waking up. Thickened airway secretions increase the incidence of airway obstruction and aspiration (inhaling stomach contents into the lungs) which can be a life-threatening situation. I've witnessed patients die on the OR table from aspiration or a mucous plug causing an airway obstruction.
Surgically speaking, I can usually easily tell a smoker by the appearance of their tissues, especially their skin. A smoker's skin is much thinner than a non-smoker's. Blood circulation is not optimim to the tissues. Tissues do not heal as quickly or as well in smokers compared to non-smokers. There is a much higher incidence of post-surgery wound breakdown and infection with smokers. In fact, some surgeons will refuse to perform certain elective procedures unless the patient agrees to stop smoking for a period of time prior to the surgery.
Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor, so it will cause capillaries to become less efficient and restrict blood flow to the tissues that they supply. Therefore, nicotine can affect incision healing. This includes delayed or prolonged or other complications in the healing of the incision. If there are other health issues such as diabetes, this further adds to the potential for complications in wound healing. I just recently learned myself that nicotine (in any form) will delay or cease bone growth or healing. So any fractures, spinal fusions, or joint replacement surgeries become compromised if nicotine is consumed during this healing period. This would include, of course, nicotine consumed via vaping.
