Robotgeassisteerde chirurgie: wat zijn de implicaties voor het milieu?

Robot-assisted surgery has a permanent place in urological practice. With the signing of the Green Deal Healthcare 3.0, it is relevant to investigate the environmental impact of these treatments. No data are yet available for urological procedures. For the robot assisted hysterectomy, the total intraoperative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are almost three times higher compared to the open abdominal procedure. The largest contribution is made by the production, transport, use and processing of single-use instruments, whereas intra-operative energy use is only a fraction of the total use. This high intraoperative environmental impact may be compensated by shorter hospital stay and fewer complications. This seems to be true for the prostatectomy, but probably not for the cystectomy. Current recommendations for healthcare professionals are mainly to critically revise the usage of single-use materials and to optimize perioperative care.