Environmental Impact of a Direct Laryngoscopy: Opportunities for Pollution Mitigation

ObjectiveTo quantify the environmental impact of standard direct laryngoscopy surgery and model the environmental benefit of three feasible alternative scenarios that meet safe decontamination reprocessing requirements.Study DesignThis is a life cycle assessment (LCA) modeling study.SettingYale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH), a 1541-bed tertiary medical center in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.MethodsWe performed cradle-to-grave LCA of DLS at Yale New Haven Hospital in 2022, including global warming potential (GWP), water consumption, and fine particulate matter formation. Three alternative scenarios were modeled: disinfecting surgical tools using high-level disinfection rather than steam sterilization, substituting non-sterile for sterile gloves and gowns; and reducing surgical towel and drape sizes by 30%.ResultsChanges in disinfection practices would decrease procedure GWP by 11% in each environmental impact category. Substituting non-sterile gowns and gloves reduced GWP by 15%, with nominal changes to water consumption. Linen size reduction resulted in 28% less procedure-related water consumption. Together, a nearly 30% reduction across all environmental impact categories could be achieved.ConclusionsNot exceeding minimum Center for Disease Control (CDC) decontamination standards for reusable devices and optimizing non-sterile consumable materials could dramatically reduce healthcare-associated emissions without compromising safety, thereby minimizing the negative consequences of hospital operations to environmental and human health. Findings extend to other non-sterile surgical procedures.Level of EvidenceN/A Laryngoscope, 2024 We applied the environmental engineering method of life cycle assessment (the gold standard for modeling emissions of products and processes) to a common non-sterile surgical procedure-direct laryngoscopy. We aimed to estimate environmental impacts and identify simple opportunities for performance improvement. Solutions identified can be generalized to many different types of clean-contaminated surgery which, collectively, could reduce healthcare's contribution to planetary disruption. image