While all anaesthetic gases are greenhouse gases, some are more harmful to the environment than others. Read more at straitstimes.com.
SINGAPORE - Hospitals are switching to more environmentally-friendly anaesthetic gases for patients undergoing operations.
Hospitals here said they are trying to reduce usage of both gases where medically appropriate. More efforts have been directed towards desflurane because of its larger environmental impact. For Ng Teng Fong General Hospital , its use of desflurane has dropped 34 per cent from 107 litres in 2019 to about 71 litres in 2022. This could be because of awareness and education efforts on the impact of desflurane, said Dr Chan Hean Peng, associate consultant at NTFGH’s department of anaesthesia.
In moving away from desflurane, doctors said the next best alternative is the gas sevoflurane. It has a GWP of 144, and is about 20 times less harmful to the environment in terms of trapping heat, compared to desflurane. Hospitals like CGH and NUH have also made efforts to convert usage to lower gas flows, so that less anaesthetic gas is used and lost to the environment.
This can be useful in surgeries involving the airway and in patients with a higher risk of airway obstruction due to the effects of anaesthesia, such as obese patients, he added. Hospitals under the National Health University System cluster, which includes NUH, NTFGH and Alexandra Hospital , are also planning on making more concerted efforts to reduce the use of nitrous oxide as it is better for the environment.
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