A United Kingdom-wide study to describe resource consumption and waste management practices in skin surgery including Mohs micrographic surgery

This is the first United-Kingdom wide cross-sectional study reporting real-world data on the heterogenicity in the set-up and waste management practices of skin surgery, including Mohs micrographic surgery. Twelve participating sites from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales provided data from 115 skin surgery lists involving 495 patients and 547 skin surgery procedures between 1 March 2022 to 30 June 2022. The mean total weight of non-sharps skin surgery waste was 0.52kg per procedure (0.39kg clinical waste, 0.05kg general waste and 0.08kg recycling waste). Data from a single site using disposable surgical instruments only reported an average of 0.25kg of sharps waste per procedure. The recycling rate ranged between 0-44% across the cohort with a mean recycling rate of 16%. We advocate staff to transition to the British Society of Dermatological Surgery 2022 sustainability guidance which made wide-ranging recommendations to facilitate staff to transition to sustainability skin surgery