The carbon footprint of laparoscopic surgery: should we offset?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to estimate the effect that the expansion of laparoscopic surgery has had on global warming. Laparoscopic procedures performed in a hospital over a 10-year period were analysed. The number of CO(2) cylinders (size C) used over a 2.5-year period and the "carbon footprint" of each cylinder was calculated. There was a fourfold increase of in the number of laparoscopic procedures performed over the past 10 years (n = 174-688). Median operative time for the laparoscopic procedures performed over the past 2.5-years (n = 1629) was 1.01 h (range 0.3-4.45 h) with 415 cylinders used in this period giving an operative time per cylinder of 3.96 h. Each cylinder produces only 0.0009 of tonnes of CO(2). Despite increasing frequency of the laparoscopic approach in general surgery, its impact on global warming is negligible.

The carbon footprint of cataract surgery

“…12,16,23 The uncertainty profiles of the two main approaches to carbon footprinting, component analysis and inputoutput assessments, differ and the use of one of these approaches in isolation can present difficulties when evaluating the magnitude of uncertainty of a study. The study reported here involves a component analysis approach only, and therefore the extent of any truncation error (the result of the exclusion of components of the service or product within the assessment) cannot easily be estimated as it was not feasible to undertake a concurrent input-output approach due to the nature of the service being assessed.…”

Estimating the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of Australian ambulance services

“…On a per-patient or per-procedure basis, healthcare related emissions are quite small: reflux control surgery emits about one ton of CO 2 equivalents (CO 2 e) per patient (Gatenby, 2011); cataract surgery emits approximately 37 kg CO 2 e per operation (Somner et al, 2009); 0.23 kg of CO 2 is directly emitted in the form of CO 2 gas used in each laparoscopic surgery (Gilliam et al, 2008). Even on a larger scale, a 5000 m 2 healthcare facility would emit only 500e900 tonnes (t) of CO 2 e annually as a result of onsite fuel and electricity consumption, depending on its location, the services it houses, and its ventilation system (Lomas and Ji, 2009;Murray et al, 2008).…”

Environmental Impact of Minimally Invasive Surgery in the United States: An Estimate of the Carbon Dioxide Footprint

“…The calculated time/ cylinder was 1.6 L/hour of laparoscopy based on 2387 procedures. The above calculations were introduced in an initial general surgery analysis by Gilliam and associates 10 at the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.…”

“…10 They concluded that laparoscopy contributes a negligible total amount of CO 2 emission to global warming. This claim was unfortunately shortsighted.…”