The DOI matches its Crossref record; 9 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Operating room waste: disposable supply utilization in neurosurgical procedures
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVE Disposable supplies constitute a large portion of operating room (OR) costs and are often left over at the end of a surgical case. Despite financial and environmental implications of such waste, there has been little evaluation of OR supply utilization. The goal of this study was to quantify the utilization of disposable supplies and the costs associated with opened but unused items (i.e., "waste") in neurosurgical procedures. METHODS Every disposable supply that was unused at the end of surgery was quantified through direct observation of 58 neurosurgical cases at the University of California, San Francisco, in August 2015. Item costs (in US dollars) were determined from the authors' supply catalog, and statistical analyses were performed. RESULTS Across 58 procedures (36 cranial, 22 spinal), the average cost of unused supplies was $653 (range $89-$3640, median $448, interquartile range $230-$810), or 13.1% of total surgical supply cost. Univariate analyses revealed that case type (cranial versus spinal), case category (vascular, tumor, functional, instrumented, and noninstrumented spine), and surgeon were important predictors of the percentage of unused surgical supply cost. Case length and years of surgical training did not affect the percentage of unused supply cost. Accounting for the different case distribution in the 58 selected cases, the authors estimate approximately $968 of OR waste per case, $242,968 per month, and $2.9 million per year, for their neurosurgical department. CONCLUSIONS This study shows a large variation and significant magnitude of OR waste in neurosurgical procedures. At the authors' institution, they recommend price transparency, education about OR waste to surgeons and nurses, preference card reviews, and clarification of supplies that should be opened versus available as needed to reduce waste.
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“In more developed countries, unused items and partially used items are thrown away with greater frequency.”
From Improving productivity, costs and environmental impact in International Eye Health Services: using the ‘Eyefficiency’ cataract surgical services auditing tool to assess the value of cataract surgical services (2021) · cites this paper as [26]
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“Farrelly et al.(52) found that optimising paediatric surgical trays could eliminate an average of 60% of instruments”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Zygourakis, C. C., Yoon, S., Valencia, V., Boscardin, C., Moriates, C., Gonzales, R., & Lawton, M. T.
- Affiliations
- Neurological Surgery (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Center for Healthcare Value,
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Department of Neurological Surgery,
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of neurosurgery
- Published
- 2017-02
- Volume
- 126
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 620-625
- ISSN
- 0022-3085 (ISSN-L)
- 1933-0693
- OpenAlex
- W2345577969
- Cited by
- 137
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3
- FWCI
- 8.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of neurosurgery (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of California, San Francisco
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare cost, quality, practices
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Healthcare and Environmental Waste Management
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Healthcare Operations and Scheduling Optimization
- Keywords
- operating room waste, neurosurgical procedures, supply costs, price transparency
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Disposable Equipment, Humans, Operating Rooms, San Francisco, Health Care Costs, Neurosurgical Procedures
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