Immediate Sequential Bilateral Cataract Surgery (Isbcs) Lowers Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Published 2024 - 42nd Congress of the ESCRS
Reference: PP27.02 | Type: Free paper | DOI: 10.82333/xsyp-6d76
Authors: Priya Doerga* 1 , Frank van den Biggelaar 1 , Shanna Honings 1 , Carroll Webers 1 , Janne Kuhn 2 , J Lambers 2 , Rudy Nuijts 1
1University Eye Clinic Maastricht, Maastricht University Medical Center+,Maastricht,Netherlands, 2Climate Neutral Group,Utrecht,Netherlands
Purpose
Since cataract surgery is one of the most common surgical procedures performed worldwide, finding ways to reduce the procedure’s carbon footprint can yield great reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. We hypothesize that performing immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) might produce less greenhouse gases than delayed sequential bilateral cataract surgery (DSBCS).
Setting
University Eye Clinic, Maastricht University Medical Center+, the Netherlands.
Methods
To determine the effects on the environment of ISBCS and DSBCS we performed a material flow analysis, to estimate their carbon footprints.
Results
We found that the carbon footprint of DSBCS at our clinic is 39.9 kg CO2e. ISBCS produces a carbon footprint of 31.7 kg CO2e, a nearly 21% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The biggest reductions of greenhouse gas emissions were in the sectors travel and building energy use.
Conclusions
We conclude that ISBCS is a more sustainable way of performing cataract surgery as compared to DSBCS.