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Eco-efficiency of disposable and reusable surgical instruments—a scissors case

  • SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

In recent years, the rising costs and infection control lead to an increasing use of disposable surgical instruments in daily hospital practices. Environmental impacts have risen as a result across the life cycle of plastic or stainless steel disposables. Compared with the conventional reusable products, different qualities and quantities of disposable scissors have to be taken into account. An eco-efficiency analysis can shed some light for the potential contribution of those products towards a sustainable development.

Methods

Disposable scissors made of either stainless steel or fibre-reinforced plastic were compared with reusable stainless steel scissors for 4,500 use cycles of surgical scissors used in Germany. A screening life cycle assessment (LCA) and a life cycle costing were performed by following ISO 14040 procedure and total cost of ownership (TCO) from a customer perspective, respectively. Subsequently, their results were used to conduct an eco-efficiency analysis.

Results and discussion

The screening LCA showed a clear ranking regarding the environmental impacts of the three types of scissors. The impacts of the disposable steel product exceeds those of the two others by 80 % (disposable plastic scissors) and 99 % (reusable steel scissors), respectively. Differences in TCO were smaller, however, revealing significant economic advantages of the reusable stainless steel product under the constraints and assumptions of this case study. Accordingly, the reusable stainless steel product was revealed as the most eco-efficient choice. It was followed by the plastic scissors which turned out to be significantly more environmentally sound than the disposable stainless steel scissors but also more cost-intensive.

Conclusions

The overall results of the study prove to be robust against variations of critical parameters for the prescribed case study. The sensitivity analyses were also conducted for LCA and TCO results. LCA results are shown to be reliable throughout all assumptions and data uncertainties. TCO results are more dependent on the choice of case study parameters whereby the price of the disposable products can severely influence the comparison of the stainless steel and the plastic scissors. The costs related to the sterilisation of the reusable product are strongly case-specific and can reduce the economic benefit of the reusable scissors to zero. Differences in environmental and economic break-even analyses underline the comparatively high share of externalised environmental costs in the case of the disposable steel product.

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Abbreviations

CED:

Cumulative energy demand

E/E:

Eco-efficiency

GRP:

Glass-reinforced plastics

LCA:

Life cycle assessment

LCIA:

Life cycle impact assessment

LCI:

Life cycle inventory

TCO:

Total cost of ownership

WBCSD:

World business council for sustainable development

WRE:

World ReCiPe midpoint

WRM:

World ReCiPe endpoint

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Acknowledgments

The authors especially thank Jörg Sisolefsky (Vanguard Integrierte Verorgungssysteme GmbH) for his contribution to this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint German-Australian Research Group on Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Management, Braunschweig, Germany

    Suphunnika Ibbotson, Tina Dettmer, Sami Kara & Christoph Herrmann

  2. Joint German-Australian Research Group on Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Management, Sydney, Australia

    Suphunnika Ibbotson, Tina Dettmer, Sami Kara & Christoph Herrmann

  3. Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering Research Group, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Suphunnika Ibbotson & Sami Kara

  4. Product - and Life-Cycle-Management Research Group, Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Tina Dettmer & Christoph Herrmann

Authors
  1. Suphunnika Ibbotson
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  2. Tina Dettmer
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  3. Sami Kara
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  4. Christoph Herrmann
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Correspondence to Suphunnika Ibbotson.

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Responsible editor: Marzia Traverso

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Ibbotson, S., Dettmer, T., Kara, S. et al. Eco-efficiency of disposable and reusable surgical instruments—a scissors case. Int J Life Cycle Assess 18, 1137–1148 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0547-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0547-7

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