Switching from general to regional anaesthesia may help cut greenhouse emissions and ultimately help reduce global warming, indicates a real life example at one US hospital over the course of a year.

The evidence suggests that regional anaesthesia provides more effective pain relief, has fewer unpleasant side effects than general anaesthesia, shortens hospital stay, and may be preferred by patients, say the authors.

But it may also have an important environmental role that is «truly global in nature,» they add.

Unlike general anaesthesia, it doesn’t use volatile halogenated agents, such as desflurane, or nitrous oxide. These greenhouse gases, which can be retained in the atmosphere for up to 114 years, damage the earth’s ozone layer, increasing the risk of global warming and climate change.

Regional anaesthesia, instead, uses a local nerve block along with intravenous sedatives.

In 2009, in the USA alone, more than a million hip and knee replacement procedures were carried out, lasting an average of 2 hours.

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