A Revolution in Surgery Flashcards
All 16 cards in this deck
What is aseptic surgery?
Keeping germs out of the operating area altogether, by sterilising instruments, clothing and the theatre.
What impact did the development of anaesthetics (1846) have on surgery?
Patients were more willing to have surgery, and longer, more complex operations beyond amputations became possible.
What impact did antiseptics have on surgery in the nineteenth century?
They greatly reduced infection — a major cause of death after operations — so operations became safer and survival rates improved.
What antiseptic did Joseph Lister use from 1865, and how?
Carbolic acid: on dressings, wounds and instruments, and later as a spray. Deaths from infection after operations on his wards fell sharply.
Who was James Simpson, and what did he introduce in 1847?
An Edinburgh professor of midwifery who introduced chloroform as an anaesthetic, after testing it on himself and his friends.
True or false? Anaesthetics made surgery safer straight away.
False. Surgeons operated for longer and deeper without understanding infection, so deaths from infection and bleeding rose in the 'Black Period' of surgery.
Whose work gave Lister the idea that germs caused infection in wounds?
Louis Pasteur's Germ Theory (1861); Lister applied it to surgery and published his results in 1867.
Give one reason surgeons opposed Lister's antiseptic methods.
Many did not believe something as small as a germ could do so much damage, and still believed in spontaneous generation.
True or false? Lister's carbolic acid was used to kill germs in the wound, not to take away the patient's pain.
True. Carbolic acid was an antiseptic; chloroform, used by Simpson, was the anaesthetic that removed pain.
Who carried out the first major operation in Britain under ether, and when?
Robert Liston, who amputated a leg at University College Hospital, London, in December 1846. A dentist, James Robinson, had used ether to pull a tooth two days earlier.
Give one drawback of ether as an anaesthetic.
Any one: it irritated the lungs, making patients cough; it often made them vomit; it was highly flammable.
Who was Hannah Greener?
A 15-year-old who died in 1848 after being given chloroform for the removal of a toenail. Her death increased fears about chloroform, because no one yet knew how to judge a safe dose.
Why did Queen Victoria's use of chloroform in 1853 matter?
She was given it during the birth of Prince Leopold, which made anaesthetics respectable and helped overcome opposition to them.
Give one religious objection to using anaesthetics in childbirth.
Some believed pain in childbirth was God's will, so it was wrong to take it away.
What happened when Lister treated Jamie Greenlees in 1865?
The 11-year-old had an open (compound) leg fracture, which normally became infected and ended in amputation. Lister treated the wound with carbolic acid; it healed without infection and the boy went home about six weeks later.
Which Leeds surgeon was one of the first in Britain to wear rubber gloves for operations?
Berkeley Moynihan, in the 1890s, as part of aseptic surgery alongside gowns, masks and sterilised instruments.