Clinical trial NCT05385367: Life Cycle Assessment of Different Types of Anesthetic
Official title: Life Cycle Assessment of General Anesthetic, Regional Anesthetic and the Combination of General Anesthetic and Regional Anesthetic: a Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Carbon Footprint in Anesthetic
Keywords: carbon footprint
anesthetic waste
life cycle analsis
Lead sponsor: University of Alberta
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-05-23
Enrollment: 90
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 19
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Mulicentre trial
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Following Ethics approval, all adult patients undergoing surgery to fix the wrist fracture will be approached and consent to undergo this study. The amount of waste generated from general anesthetic, regional anesthetic and regional+general anesthetic will be collected and weighed.

Patients undergoing this type of wrist surgery have only regional anesthetic, or general anesthetic, or both ie. regional anesthetic and general anesthetic.

The aim of the study is to compare the amount of waste generated from each type of anesthetic and this will give us a better idea of which anesthetic is more environmentally sustainable.

Detailed description: Following Ethics approval, all adult patients undergoing surgery to fix the wrist fracture will be approached and consent to undergo this study. The amount of waste generated from general anesthetic, regional anesthetic and regional+general anesthetic will be collected and weighed. Waste will include disposable and reusable wastes. Examples of disposable waste are all plastic packaging, syringes, needles, breathing tube, breathing circuits, gloves as well as drugs. Examples of reusable waste will be anesthetic face mask, laryngeal mask (which is a form of airway device that can be reprocessed), sterile gowns. The amount of anesthetic gas used will be obtained from the anesthetic machine.

Patients undergoing this type of wrist surgery have only regional anesthetic (freezing performed higher up in the arm to numb the whole arm for several hours), or general anesthetic (patient completely goes to deep anesthetic sleep), or both ie. regional anesthetic (freezing just for pain control afterwards) and general anesthetic (patient goes to deep anesthetic sleep after the freezing is done and they may need less pain killer during the surgery as well as afterwards).

The amount of waste generated will be compared amongst these 3 groups by life cycle analysis.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* All adult patients undergoing open reduction and internal fixation of wrist
* ASA 1-3

Exclusion Criteria:

* no contraindications for general anesthetic in the group for general anesthetic and vice versa

Primary outcomes:
measure: Carbon dioxide emission
timeFrame: During surgical intervention
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Generation of solid waste
timeFrame: During surgical intervention
measure: Duration of surgery
timeFrame: During surgical intervention
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Edmonton
country: Canada
facility: University of Alberta Hospital
state: Alberta
city: St. Albert
country: Canada
facility: Sturgeon Community Hospital
state: Alberta
Study officials:
References: