A DATABASE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS WITHIN HEALTHCARE

Cardiothoracic surgery: the environmental impacts.

Disciplines / Surgery

Climate change is set to exacerbate an already worsening global burden of cardiovascular disease. Increasing air pollution, for example, has been linked to a higher risk of myocardial infarction.

Approximately six billion people lack access to necessary cardiac surgical care, highlighting the urgent requirement for scaling up global cardiac surgery services. However, expanding capacity in cardiac centers, which are resource-intensive, necessitates the implementation of sustainable mitigation and adaptation strategies.

While cardiac surgical procedures are life-saving, they also impose a substantial environmental burden due to their high resource consumption. Conducting life cycle assessments to characterize these burdens can drive quality improvements and contribute to making cardiac surgery a more sustainable field.

What to learn more about the environmental impacts of cardiothoracic surgery?

Our database contains environmental impact estimates for a range of cardiothoracic-related products and activities, including bypass grafting, valve replacements, and more!

Below we present a gallery view of all the cardiothoracic-related data sources currently included within our database. Scroll through and expand tiles to learn more about each data source, including its scope and methods.

If you want to explore environmental impact estimates for specific products and activities, scroll down further to explore the database itself, again filtered to only show cardiothoracic-related studies.

— "Six billion people lack access to cardiac surgical care when needed. Clearly, there is an indispensable need for global cardiac surgery scaling. Given the resource-intensive nature of cardiac centres, this task will require sustainable mitigation and adaptation strategies as global capacity is expanded."

Chan et al., 2022

Jump to:

— Anesthesiology, emergency medicine and intensive care

— Cardiology

— Cardiothoracic surgery

— Dentistry

— Endocrinology

— Gastroenterology

— General practice

— General surgery

— Geriatrics

— Infectious disease

— Neurosurgery

— Obstetrics & gynecology

— Oncology

— Ophthalmology

— Orthopedics

— Pathology

— Pediatrics

— Pharmacy

— Plastic Surgery

— Psychiatry

— Radiology

— Renal

— Respiratory

— Rheumatology

— Urology