Obese patients are at a higher risk of complications. Learn why and how to address their specific perioperative care needs. Current literature highlights various ventilation and positioning methods to mitigate these risks.

As much as 4.6% of global greenhouse gases are caused by the health sector.¹ And of the total emissions of hospitals, 2% are due to volatile anesthetics.² 

Anesthetic gases have been widely administered during surgery for many years. But volatile anesthetics can also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and potential climate change. 

A vast majority of anaesthesia cases include those employing halogenated inhalational agents (sevoflurane, desflurane and isoflurane) and non-halogenated agents (nitrous oxide), making the impact of inhaled anesthetics pollution is substantial.³  Inhaled anesthetic gases, which are exhausted directly to the atmosphere, are estimated to account for 5% of acute hospital CO2e emissions and 50% of perioperative department emissions in high-income countries.⁴