Attempts to reduce medical waste in laparoscopic surgery and thereby achieve sustainable development goals

Abstract

　We investigated how using reusable rather than disposable uterine manipulators impacted surgical outcomes in laparoscopic ovarian tumor surgery. This was a retrospective study of patients who underwent laparoscopic ovarian tumor surgery with a diagnosis of ovarian endometriotic cyst from January to July 2022 at Yokohama Rosai Hospital. We switched from using a disposable uterine manipulator to a reusable product in May 2022, and compared patient backgrounds and outcomes before and after this time. Twenty patients were included, 9 in the disposable product group and 11 in the reusable product group. The time from anesthesia induction to the end of surgery, the amount of blood loss, and the frequency of complications did not differ between the two groups. In laparoscopic ovarian tumor surgery, switching from disposable to reusable uterine manipulators had no significant effects on surgical outcomes.