Financial and environmental costs of reusable and single-use anaesthetic equipment

Br J Anaesth. 2017 Jun 1;118(6):862-869. doi: 10.1093/bja/aex098.

Abstract

Background.: An innovative approach to choosing hospital equipment is to consider the environmental costs in addition to other costs and benefits.

Methods.: We used life cycle assessment to model the environmental and financial costs of different scenarios of replacing reusable anaesthetic equipment with single-use variants. The primary environmental costs were CO 2 emissions (in CO 2 equivalents) and water use (in litres). We compared energy source mixes between Australia, the UK/Europe, and the USA.

Results.: For an Australian hospital with six operating rooms, the annual financial cost of converting from single-use equipment to reusable anaesthetic equipment would be an AUD$32 033 (£19 220), 46% decrease. In Australia, converting from single-use to reusable equipment would result in an increase of CO 2 emissions from 5095 (95% CI: 4614-5658) to 5575 kg CO 2 eq (95% CI: 5542-5608), a 480 kg CO 2 eq (9%) increase. Using the UK/European power mix, converting from single-use (5575 kg CO 2 eq) to reusable anaesthetic equipment (802 kg CO 2 eq) would result in an 84% reduction (4873 kg CO 2 eq) in CO 2 emissions, whilst in the USA converting to reusables would have led to a 2427 kg CO 2 eq (48%) reduction. In Australia, converting from single-use to reusable equipment would more than double water use from 34.4 to 90.6 kilolitres.

Conclusions.: For an Australian hospital with six operating rooms, converting from single-use to reusable anaesthetic equipment saved more than AUD$30 000 (£18 000) per annum, but increased the CO 2 emissions by almost 10%. The CO 2 offset is highly dependent on the power source mix, while water consumption is greater for reusable equipment.

Keywords: anaesthesia; environment; footprint; health economics; life cycle assessment.

MeSH terms

  • Air Pollutants / analysis
  • Anesthesiology / economics*
  • Anesthesiology / instrumentation*
  • Australia
  • Carbon Dioxide / analysis
  • Costs and Cost Analysis
  • Disposable Equipment / economics*
  • Environmental Pollution / economics*
  • Equipment Reuse / economics*
  • Operating Rooms
  • Water Supply

Substances

  • Air Pollutants
  • Carbon Dioxide