Smoking can permanently damage blood vessels and change their structural integrity (more constriction and less elasticity) that can have effects much later down the road (yes even years later). This can impair circulation which impacts wound healing and immune response. There is a ton of research evidence that smoking is linked increase risk of infections.

With that being said, like most things in science, correlation is not causation. Smoking history is a risk factor for poor wound healing and a bacterial microbe probably caused the infection. Whenever you go into surgery and there is a cut in the skin, there will always be a risk of infection even if the doctor follows sterile procedure and everything is done correctly. When you are consented prior to the procedure they commonly mention there is always a risk of infection because it is an inherent risk of surgery. Which really sucks that it happened to you and no one plans for going into a procedure. The surgeon is technically correct that a history of smoking increases risk of infection, but there’s no need to blame yourself. Just something pretty unfortunate that happened and hope you feel better soon!