Climate change and (surgical) health in context

Abstract

The impacts of the climate crisis will result in ahealth crisis in addition to loss of habitats and increasing supply uncertainty. In this context, the health sector and especially surgery are relevant emitters of greenhouse gases, thus contributing to the magnitude of the climate crisis. Many reviews regarding the impacts on human health are available; however, a view from the surgical perspective has so far been underrepresented. This narrative review summarizes the relevance of climate-related changes for the surgical disciplines based on aliterature search. Immediate impacts are expected by the increasing number of extreme weather events, e.g., floods, droughts and wildfires. In these settings, surgery is apart of the disaster medicine chain but simultaneously the functionality of surgical departments can be impaired or even break down when they are themselves affected by extreme weather events. Heat waves cause an increase in surgical site infections, which may lead to postponement of elective surgery for patients at high risk. Collateral impacts are mirrored by an increase in the incidence of lung and skin cancers, which often need surgical treatment within amultidisciplinary setting. Additionally, there are indirect impacts that are of a very different nature, e.g., inadequate diet which leads to further deterioration of the greenhouse gas footprint of the health sector due to the necessity of bariatric surgical capacities. The climate crisis represents amajor challenge in surgery and all other medical disciplines. At the same time is it indispensable that the health sector and therefore surgery, take steps towards azero emission pathway.