Effect of Early Initiation of Varenicline on Smoking Cessation in COPD Patients Admitted for Exacerbation: The Save Randomized Clinical Trial.

Our main objective was to demonstrate that, in smoker patients hospitalised for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbation, early initiation of varenicline during 12 weeks, combined with an intensive counselling, is associated with a higher continuous abstainers rate (CAR) at one year as compared to intensive counselling alone. In this multicenter, prospective, double-blind, randomised study, 81 smoking COPD patients hospitalised for an acute exacerbation for at least 24 h were allocated to receive either varenicline ( = 42) or placebo ( = 39) for 12 weeks, in association with an intensive counselling in the 2 groups, and followed up for 40 weeks. The primary outcome was CAR at week 52.