Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 11/4/2008

Question
I am a resident in anesthesiology (first year).  I'm wondering whether any information exists as to whether it causes cumulative harm for the anesthesiologist to breathe in the anesthetic gases for years on end.  Is it possible for there to be any damage to the liver or other organs from years of breathing in these gases?

Answer
While there has been the occasional study that shows that OR personnel have a higher than average risk of birth defects, etc, I think the conclusions are shaky at best. Anesthesia machines have a scavenger system which is designed to get rid of waste gases. If you do a lot of pediatric cases in which you do mask inductions or anesthetics with uncuffed ET tubes, then you are probably more exposed to anesthetic gases than most, but again there has been no definitive link between anesthetic gases and birth defects, liver problems, etc.

Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston