Overview
- Yale New Haven Health System ended desflurane use in 2013, reporting $1.2 million in annual medication savings and an emissions reduction likened to removing 360 cars at its flagship hospital.
- After the switch, Yale New Haven relies primarily on sevoflurane, described as roughly ten times less potent as a greenhouse gas than desflurane and about half the cost.
- US Anesthesia Partners estimates about a 90 percent cut in anesthesia-related greenhouse emissions since 2017, with desflurane now used in less than 1 percent of cases.
- Major systems including the University of California, Providence, OhioHealth, the University of Vermont Medical Center, and Kaiser Permanente have eliminated or sharply reduced desflurane.
- Hospitals are expanding low-flow anesthesia and curbing nitrous oxide losses, with a 2024 study finding centralized piping can leak up to 99.8 percent of nitrous oxide while portable tanks can reduce losses by 98 percent.