Abstract
Climate change will affect most populations in the next decades and put the health of billions of people at risk. Health care facilities represent a significant source of pollution around the world and contribute to environmental changes. To address this topic, we performed a review of the available literature on tactics to reduce operating room (OR) waste and the potential of these strategies to impact the environment.
A literature search was performed querying PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct. No comparative data were found; most were opinion papers, white papers, and case studies. For this reason, we proceeded with a narrative review, which provides an overview of the evidence on this topic and identifies areas for future research.
This systematic review summarizes the available literature on the 5 “Rs” of waste management: reduction, reusing, recycling, rethinking, and renewable energies.
Surgery has a unique opportunity to transition to more environmentally-friendly operating room strategies, which may help decrease waste and lessen the impact of climate change.
•Surgical waste is contributing to landfill mass and climate change.•Strategies such as repurposing and anesthetic gas reclaiming are potential strategies to address surgical waste.•Donation of unused or repurposed surgical supplies may help global surgery efforts while decreasing surgical waste.
