Joseph Lister revolutionized the world of surgeries by implement the hand washingas well as materials to practice operations, since this practice was unknown for the doctors of 1840.
During the 19th century, there was no greater offense in the world of medicine than trying to convince a doctor to wash your handsas this implied that they were always dirty and according to the thinking of the time: “doctors are gentlemen and a gentleman’s hands are always clean”.
The doctor who implemented the hand washing
For his part, the Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis had already forged the first attempt to keep the hands of health personnel clean in the year 1847, this with the purpose of decrease mortality rate in delivery rooms.
He succeeded in establishing this technique by installing batteries filled with a solution made from chlorinated lime in each of the maternity wards of the Vienna General Hospital. this action managed to save many lives with the simple indication of: “wash your hands”.
Sadly this technique failed to go beyond obstetric doctorssince the members of the rest of the specialties continued to consider unnecessary adopt this habit.
Deaths not only of patients
During the month of April of that same year, John Phillips Potter, who was a anatomy demonstrator at University College Hospital in London, had an accident that caused an injury to one of his knuckles at the time of dissect a decomposing body.
This wound, however small, got seriously infected leading to death from septicemia to young John. Septicemia is the presence of bacteria in the blood derived from infections serious according to Medline plus.
Many people who engaged in dissection, died for lack of hygiene at the time of developing their work, because The Lancet magazine mentioned that any other worker might be saved from their work accidents, but not the prosectors, in this way they earned the title of martyrs of science.
One of the attendees at the funeral of John Phillips, was Joseph Lister who was his student.
Lister was the son of Joseph Jackson Lister, compound microscope builder that was able to eliminate the chromatic aberrations that the old versions of this tool presented, according to the College of Sciences and Humanities of the UNAM.
Because of this kinship, Joseph grew up knowing regarding the existence of microorganismsthese little beings were responsible for the death of their mentor, as well as many other victims around the world.
Safer at home than in the hospital
Las infections of the wounds presented by patients in a hospital were spread simultaneously from bed to bedthe certainty that if a patient would survive any intervention was almost nil, coming to represent a 40% limb amputation or mortality rateactually increasing tol 60% in French hospitals.
Photo:Pexels
Sometime it was considered to close the hospital wards and that interventions will be carried out directly to the patient’s home in order to reduce the mortality rate. Well, at some point this became so common that it was baptized with the name of room fever.
once morest microbes
Lister managed to graduate as doctorsurgery was one of his greatest passions so he decided to travel to Scotland to be able to put his knowledge into practice and although he loved this, he suffered knowing that hisHis patients died from infections postoperative.
One day, while chatting with Professor Thomas Anderson, he learned that Louis Pasteur had been able to demonstrate that some liquids susceptible to fermentation or putrefaction might be kept in good condition if they were prevented from coming into contact with the air.
Similarly, Pasteur discovered that the decomposition or fermentation of liquids was result of contact with bacteria that were transported through the air.
Creation of the disinfection of the operating room
One followingnoon in 1865, a boy who had been hit by a carriagethis little one had a open Fracture, which consists of being a fracture that shows the bone through the skinaccording to Stanford Children’s Health.
Photo:Pexels
Faced with this situation, the doctor had the idea of applying it to the personnel’s clothing, to the material for the operation, to the wound and mainly on the hands a 5% carbolic acid solution which would have the function of agent antiseptic.
Similarly at the end of the operation, placed a bandage soaked in the chemical in the affected area and ordered change this daily.
this experiment it was successfulbecause as the days go by the leg was healingto later be able to be discharged.
This technique replicated 11 timesof which 9 came through in a positive way leading Lister to make this discovery public, inviting his colleagues to replicate it, making them lose their fear of performing this type of procedure.
First of all, many members of the community remained skeptical of this eventmainly in the United States and Englandbut soon became a measure essential in every hospital.
By the early 1900s, operating rooms were already demanding this health measure in each interventionthus increasing successful results for patients.
Dr. Joseph Lister brought many other advances to the world of medicine, such as being able to perform andThe first isolation of bacteria in culture as mentioned by the BBC. However, he will always be remembered for change the way surgeries were performed.
Joseph Lister Foto:BBC
(With information from BBC News, CCH UNAM, Medlineplus and Stanford Children’s Health).