The SageTech Medical system is installed between the anesthesia machine and the suction system. Exhaled anesthetic gases are captured and bound by activated carbon cartridges instead of being released into the atmosphere. Once a cartridge is saturated, it is replaced and sent for reprocessing. During the recycling process, the anesthetics are extracted from the filter material, purified, and converted back into a usable form. In this way, an emission product is transformed into a resource. “Integrating the system into our daily routine—with eight operating rooms—went smoothly,” says Drazen Tomic, Deputy Director of Anesthesia Nursing. “The devices are portable, the training requirements are minimal, and acceptance within the team is high.”
Peter Boelhouwers, Head of Anesthesia Nursing, adds: “We’re still in the early stages and are currently collecting data on the actual recovery of anesthetic gases such as sevoflurane or desflurane. This will then be quantified in a CO₂ savings report. However, our experience so far has been consistently positive, both technically and organizationally.”