Acta Scientific Neurology (ASNE) (ISSN: 2582-1121)

Perspective Volume 5 Issue 9

Greening the Neurosurgical Operating Room: The Environmental Impact of Spine Surgery

Mihir Gupta MD1,2*

1Johns Hopkins Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Baltimore, MD, United States of America
2Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Neurosurgery, Boston, MA, United States of America

*Corresponding Author: Mihir Gupta MD, Johns Hopkins Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Baltimore, MD, United States of America and Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Neurosurgery, Boston, MA, United States of America.

Received: July 21,2022; Published: August 12, 2022

Abstract

Emerging studies have called attention to the rising environmental impact of healthcare delivery. In the United States, the healthcare sector has a carbon footprint exceeding 7-10% of total national carbon dioxide emissions annually [1,2]. Hospitals are the largest contributor, responsible for approximately 40% of total healthcare-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.1 US healthcare has been estimated to cause an annual loss of 614,000 disability-adjusted life-years due to the harmful effects of GHG emissions [3]. The relative contributions of various surgical specialties to the environmental footprint of healthcare remain unknown.

References

  1. Chung JW and Meltzer DO. “Estimate of the carbon footprint of the US healthcare sector”. JAMA18 (2009): 1970-1972.
  2. Eckelman MJ and Sherman J. “Environmental impacts of the U.S. health care system and effects on public health”. PLoS One 11 (2016): e0157014.
  3. Eckelman MJ and Sherman JD. “Estimated global disease burden from US health care sector green- house gas emissions”. American Journal of Public Health S2 (2018): S120-S122.
  4. Wang AY., et al. “Assessing the Environmental Carbon Footprint of Spinal versus General Anesthesia in Single-Level Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusions”. World Neurosurgery 163 (2022): e199-e206.
  5. Azouz S., et al. “Managing barriers to recycling in the operating room”. The American Journal of Surgery 4 (2019): 634-638.
  6. Alshqaqeeq F., et al. “Choosing radiology imaging modalities to meet patients needs with lower environmental impact”. Resources Conservation Recycling 155 (2020): 104657.
  7. Harding C., et al. “Design opportunities to reduce waste in operating rooms”. Sustainability 13 (2021): 2207-2220.

Citation

Citation: Mihir Gupta MD. “Greening the Neurosurgical Operating Room: The Environmental Impact of Spine Surgery". Acta Scientific Neurology 5.9 (2022): 19-20.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Mihir Gupta MD. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.




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