Carbon Footprint in Anesthetic
Conditions
Keywords
carbon footprint, anesthetic waste, life cycle analsis
Brief summary
Following Ethics approval, all adult patients undergoing surgery to fix the wrist fracture will be approached and consent to undergo this study. The amount of waste generated from general anesthetic, regional anesthetic and regional+general anesthetic will be collected and weighed. Patients undergoing this type of wrist surgery have only regional anesthetic, or general anesthetic, or both ie. regional anesthetic and general anesthetic. The aim of the study is to compare the amount of waste generated from each type of anesthetic and this will give us a better idea of which anesthetic is more environmentally sustainable.
Detailed description
Following Ethics approval, all adult patients undergoing surgery to fix the wrist fracture will be approached and consent to undergo this study. The amount of waste generated from general anesthetic, regional anesthetic and regional+general anesthetic will be collected and weighed. Waste will include disposable and reusable wastes. Examples of disposable waste are all plastic packaging, syringes, needles, breathing tube, breathing circuits, gloves as well as drugs. Examples of reusable waste will be anesthetic face mask, laryngeal mask (which is a form of airway device that can be reprocessed), sterile gowns. The amount of anesthetic gas used will be obtained from the anesthetic machine. Patients undergoing this type of wrist surgery have only regional anesthetic (freezing performed higher up in the arm to numb the whole arm for several hours), or general anesthetic (patient completely goes to deep anesthetic sleep), or both ie. regional anesthetic (freezing just for pain control afterwards) and general anesthetic (patient goes to deep anesthetic sleep after the freezing is done and they may need less pain killer during the surgery as well as afterwards). The amount of waste generated will be compared amongst these 3 groups by life cycle analysis.
Interventions
OTHERRegional anesthetic
Patient having just the nerve block for surgery
OTHERGeneral anesthetic
Patient having just general anesthetic ie. 'go completely under' for surgery
OTHERCombined general anesthetic and regional anesthetic
Patient having a combination of a nerve block and general anesthetic for surgery
Sponsors
University of Alberta
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Mulicentre trial
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
19 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* All adult patients undergoing open reduction and internal fixation of wrist * ASA 1-3
Exclusion criteria
* no contraindications for general anesthetic in the group for general anesthetic and vice versa
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Carbon dioxide emission | During surgical intervention | Amount of carbon dioxide emission |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Generation of solid waste | During surgical intervention | Solid waste generated within the type of anesthetic |
| Duration of surgery | During surgical intervention | Duration of surgery |
Countries
Canada
Outcome results
None listed