Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of single use vs reusable duodenoscopes

A life cycle analysis study of single use vs reusable duodenoscopes has now been published in full:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35718068/

The paper focuses on the use of the endoscopes themselves, and the environmental impact implications of a single use model. The authors have also encorporated into their analysis the environmental and human health impacts of infection that may be attributable to the use of resusable endoscopes.

The topic of single use endoscopes is a hot debate in the field of sustainablity, and this study is the first to quantify the impacts of a switch to single use (~24-47x increase in GHG emmisions), while demonstrating that the overwhelming majority of emmissions from single use are produced during the manufacture of the single use duodenoscopes.