{
  "abstract": "Background: The healthcare sector is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, with operating rooms representing particularly waste-intensive environments. Despite growing interest in sustainability in surgery, little qualitative research has explored surgeons’ and surgical trainees’ perceptions of this issue or their responses to professional society sustainability initiatives.\n\nMethods: This qualitative study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with surgeons and surgical trainees who attended at least one sustainability session at the 2024 Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) Annual Meeting. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants, and interviews were conducted in person or via Zoom. Transcripts were analyzed using the framework method with an abductive approach to coding. Domains and themes were generated using constant comparison.\n\nResults: 18 participants were interviewed, including surgeons, fellows, and residents from academic and community settings. Two major domains emerged: (1) attitudes and perceptions of sustainability in surgery and (2) responses to the 2024 SAGES Annual Meeting’s sustainability agenda. Participants conceptualized sustainability as both mindful resource use and concrete waste-reduction actions. The operating room was widely viewed as a highly wasteful environment. Sustainability sessions were perceived as educational, motivating, and impactful, particularly through leadership engagement and the presentation of quantitative environmental data. Many participants reported increased awareness and expressed intentions to implement sustainable changes in their own practices.\n\nConclusions: Participants demonstrated strong support for sustainability initiatives and viewed the SAGES sustainability sessions as a catalyst for individual and institutional change. These findings highlight the influential role of professional societies, leadership, and data-driven education in advancing sustainability in surgical practice.\n\nSupplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-026-13181-x.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Colorectal Surgery, Ellen Leifer Shulman and Steven Shulman Digestive Disease Center, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL USA",
    "Department of General Surgery, Baptist Heath South Florida, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL USA",
    "Colorectal Surgery Unit, General Surgery Department, Mansoura University Hospitals, Mansoura, Egypt",
    "Department of Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada",
    "Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Mount Sinai Health System, New York, NY USA",
    "Department of Colorectal Surgery, Medstar Georgetown University Health, Washington, DC USA",
    "University College London, London, UK",
    "Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston Hospital, 2950 Cleveland Clinic Boulevard, Weston, FL 33331 USA",
    "Department of Surgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON Canada",
    "Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD USA"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
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        0
      ],
      "name": "Anjelli Wignakumar"
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    {
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        1
      ],
      "name": "Justin Dourado"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Sameh Hany Emile"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Julio F. Fiore"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Patricia Sylla"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Steven D. Wexner"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Lakshmi Linkeshwaran"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        3,
        7
      ],
      "name": "Marylise Boutros",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8006-321X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8,
        9
      ],
      "name": "Olivia Monton"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f4amay9k4taqs.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1007/s00464-026-13181-x",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13754940/",
  "id": "f4amay9k4taqs",
  "issns": [
    "0930-2794",
    "1432-2218"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-026-13181-x",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2739|Healthcare and Environmental Waste Management"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7202134721",
  "pdf_url": "https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00464-026-13181-x.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13754940",
  "pmid": "42576079",
  "published": "2026-08-10",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f4amay9k4taqs.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-15T12:23:52Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13754940",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-026-13181-x"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2739|Healthcare and Environmental Waste Management",
      "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Sustainability in surgery: insights from the 2024 SAGES Annual Meeting",
  "title_text": "Sustainability in surgery: insights from the 2024 SAGES Annual Meeting",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-15T12:23:52Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/f4amay9k4taqs",
  "venue": "Surgical Endoscopy",
  "versions": []
}