European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care consensus document on sustainability: 4 scopes to achieve a more sustainable practice.

Climate change is a defining issue for our generation. The carbon footprint of clinical practice accounts for 4.7% of European greenhouse gas emissions, with the European Union ranking as the third largest contributor to the global healthcare industry's carbon footprint, after the United States and China. Recognising the importance of urgent action, the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) adopted the Glasgow Declaration on Environmental Sustainability in June 2023. Building on this initiative, the ESAIC Sustainability Committee now presents a consensus document in perioperative sustainability. Acknowledging wider dimensions of sustainability, beyond the environmental one, the document recognizes healthcare professionals as cornerstones for sustainable care, and puts forward recommendations in four main areas: direct emissions, energy, supply chain and waste management, and psychological and self-care of healthcare professionals. Given the urgent need to cut global carbon emissions, and the scarcity of evidence-based literature on perioperative sustainability, our methodology is based on expert opinion recommendations. A total of 90 recommendations were drafted by 13 sustainability experts in anaesthesia in March 2023, then validated by 36 experts from 24 different countries in a two-step Delphi validation process in May and June 2023. To accommodate different possibilities for action in high- versus middle-income countries, an 80% agreement threshold was set to ease implementation of the recommendations Europe-wide. All recommendations surpassed the 80% agreement threshold in the first Delphi round, and 88 recommendations achieved an agreement >90% in the second round. Recommendations include the use of very low fresh gas flow, choice of anaesthetic drug, energy and water preserving measures, "5R" policies including choice of plastics and their disposal, and recommendations to keep a healthy work environment or on the importance of fatigue in clinical practice. Executive summaries of recommendations in areas 1, 2 and 3 are available as cognitive aids that can be made available for quick reference in the operating room.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy as an adjuvant to source control in necrotizing soft tissue infections.

INTRODUCTION: Necrotizing soft tissue infections (NSTI) are rare but potentially lethal disorders, and adequate management is time- and resource-demanding. This study aims to assess whether variations in the treatment modalities - surgery, hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy and negative pressure wound therapy - had an impact on the length to definitive source control in NSTI patients who underwent HBO2. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of all NSTI patients treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy between March 2007 and May 2015 at Unidade Local de Saúde de Matosinhos (ULSM) Hyperbaric Unit. A multiple linear regression model was used to assess the impact of different treatment modalities in the posdiagnosis time until source control. RESULTS: 58 patients were included; overall mortality was 13.8%. Mean time until source control was 10.4 days (±5.4). All patients were under empiric and broad-spectrum antibiotics on the day of diagnosis. Patients underwent an average of 0.62 (±0.29) surgical interventions and 1.06 (±0.52) HBO2 sessions per day. The regression model (R2=0.86) showed that after adjusting for other covariates, doubling the number of HBO2 sessions per day shortened source control by five days (? ß = -5.25; 95% CI -6.49 to 4.01), and for each day that HBO2 was delayed, source control was achieved one day later (ß = 1.03; 95% CI 0.82 to 1.24). CONCLUSIONS: More intensive HBO2 protocols with earlier and more frequent sessions shorten the time until definitive source control in necrotizing soft tissue infections, potentially lowering the impact of systemic effects of infection and complications associated with organ dysfunction.