Purpose
The environmental impact of common ambulatory hand surgeries has been an area of growing
interest in recent years. There were 2 objectives of this study: (1) to quantify the
carbon footprint of carpal tunnel surgery and its principal driving components; and
(2) to compare the carbon footprints of open carpal tunnel release (oCTR) and endoscopic
carpal tunnel release (eCTR).
Methods
We performed a life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental impacts of 2 surgical
procedures: oCTR and eCTR. Patients were retrospectively identified by querying the
Mass General Brigham institutional billing database. Fourteen oCTR procedures and
14 eCTR procedures in 28 patients were included in the life cycle assessment. The
boundaries of the life cycle assessment were the start and end times of the procedures.
The environmental impacts were estimated using the carbon footprint, expressed in
the equivalent mass of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere (kgCO2-eq). The facility-related, processing-related, solid waste–related, and total kgCO2-eq were calculated.
Results
The average carbon footprint of carpal tunnel release was 83.1 kgCO2-eq and was dominated by processing-related and facilities-related factors. The average
carbon footprint of eCTR (106.5 kgCO2-eq) was significantly greater than that of oCTR (59.6 kgCO2-eq).
Conclusions
Endoscopic carpal tunnel release leaves a greater carbon footprint than oCTR, and
its environmental impact is dominated by facility-related and central processing–related
factors.
Type of study/level of evidence
Economic and Decision Analyses IV.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 02, 2022
Accepted:
December 1,
2021
Received:
March 31,
2021
Footnotes
No benefits in any form have been received or will be received related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 by the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. All rights reserved.
