Potential impacts to human health from climate change: A comparative life-cycle assessment of single-use versus reusable devices flexible ureteroscopes.

ABSTRACT: Climate change poses a significant global health challenge, with medical procedures contributing substantially to CO₂ emissions. Urology, as part of the broader healthcare sector, has begun integrating Planetary Health concepts to address this issue. While earlier studies have focused on Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of urological procedures, these evaluations remain data-dependent, and insights into intra-hospital emissions are limited. This study introduces a methodical approach for analyzing intra-institutional processes of LCA for single-use and reusable flexible ureterorenoscopes (fURS). The LCA method was applied to assess the greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂ equivalents, CO₂-eq) generated across the life cycle of fURS, including production, use-phase, re

SUBMITTER: Thone M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11585494 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature