, suggesting a minimal overall impact. Since sevoflurane yields lower values for all indicators, it should be prioritized when volatile anesthetics are used, whereas desflurane should be reserved for specific situations. Moreover, alternative anesthetics, including intravenous agents, have their own environmental burdens related to plastic waste, drug disposal, and energy consumption, indicating that restricting desflurane alone will not eliminate anesthetic-related environmental impacts. This review assesses the balance between desflurane's clinical utility and environmental effects, identifies contexts in which it offers clinical advantages, summarizes its greenhouse gas contributions, and discusses mitigation strategies, including low-flow anesthesia, anesthetic gas capture and recycling. Judicious, environmentally conscious use of desflurane may allow it to remain an additional anesthetic option in selected clinical contexts, alongside other inhaled and intravenous anesthetics, while efforts to minimize its environmental footprint continue.
Tamura et al. (2026) studied this question.