Sustainability within Surgery: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives The 2024 North Pacific Surgical Association Historian's Lecture.

Abstract

Hospitals in Europe and North America, responding to surgeons' pleas for an antiseptic space to perform surgery, began to build thoughtfully designed operating rooms in the late nineteenth century. The energy consumption and waste production of early and middle twentieth century operating rooms was sustainable compared to those of the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. The adoption of technological advances that use more energy, e.g. laparoscopy and robotic surgery, and the diminishment of the applicability of local or regional anesthesia to many common procedures diminished the sustainability of surgery. In addition, waste production dramatically increased with the growth of the global supply chain and its provision of inexpensive disposable instruments and accouterments. Surgeons can help reverse this unsustainable trend by requesting reusable instruments and accouterments and by using local or regional anesthesia whenever safely possible.