How Did Joseph Lister Use Antiseptic Surgery

Dirty equipment – having dirty equipment which is not cleaned between patients can spread infection very fast lots of bacteria can be spread on a blood pressure cuff for example.

5. Poulin,P., et al.(2014) Preoperative Skin Antiseptics for preventing surgical site infections: What to do?

Despite its barbaric reputation, the Civil War greatly impacted the sanitation systems used in today’s medical fields. One major impact in today’s sanitation systems, are the methods doctors and surgeons use to help prevent disease and infections. One way doctors prevent the spread of diseases, is by washing their hands for a full ten minutes before operating or examining a patient. This method of preventing diseases is efficient because it kills the germs that are on a medical officials hand and prevents them from spreading to the next patient from the doctor or surgeon palpating the patient (“Medicine During the Civil War”). This is one of the greatest medical innovations gained from the Civil War. Since there are now proper medical schools, doctors and surgeons are now able to realize the causes of certain bacterial and viral infections. Another way that today’s sanitation systems were affected from the Civil War, are the precautionary steps that medical officials take to keep today’s hospitals clean from bacteria and viruses. Today’s

“Medical knowledge in the 1860s did not understand bacteria and germs and how they could be transmitted” (“Medicine in the Civil War”Americancivilwar.com). Doctors or surgeons didn’t know about bacteria and germs and how quickly the infections transmitted. “This lack of understanding of germs and bacteria led to the spread of disease that killed more soldiers than enemy bullets during the entire war”(“Medicine in the Civil War” Americancivilwar.com). Doctors back then didn’t have much understanding about infections and that was the cause a lot of soldiers died. Not only the spread of infections where a problem, but also where the surgeries took

At that time, sanitation wasn’t “popular”. Many doctors or we may say, most of them,

During this last visit, Dr. M made some mistakes which may have played a crucial role in Jacob acquiring an infection, or, in the least, contributed to negligence. After removing Jacob’s cast, Dr. M did not complete his examination of Jacob’s leg before he left the room to exam another patient, Sarah, in the room across the hall. Upon entering the room, he did not close the door. The most obvious mistake the doctor did was not washing his hands after his examination of Sarah, who has osteomyelitis, after which he returned to the first exam room to continue his examination of Jacob’s leg. Hand washing plays a major role in preventing cross-contamination when caring for patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2014), washing hands is an extremely important way to prevent the spread of infection from patient to patient or patient to health care professional. It is essential that all health care providers practice hand hygiene even if gloves are worn. There

Health Care providers must implement infection control at all times. This is essential in order to avoid any sources of contamination that would put patients at risk for infection as well as all hospital personnel. There are two important aseptic techniques: Medical Asepsis, and Surgical Asepsis. The first one includes hand hygiene, use of gloves, masks, gowns and routine

In the 18th century, the medical field was made up of mostly men. There were three jobs in this field: Physicians, Surgeons, and Apothecaries. Physicians were the most elite of the three. Physicians in the 18th century had no knowledge of anything. Nobody knew that disease was spread by bacteria, germs, and viruses. Because they didn’t know this, nobody practiced sterilization or hygiene, hospital and personal.

Imagine yourself living in the 1800s. Think of all of the inventions that made life easier, such as the telephone to communicate over long distances, or the typewriter to write formal letters to people. These were all important inventions that made life easier, but a biologist by the name of Joseph Lister had made some important discoveries in antiseptics that ended up saving the lives of people. In this paper, I will inform you about Lister’s early life and the degrees he earned from his educational background, his major contribution to the biological community and what people knew before his contribution, the scientists that inspired him and helped him, how knowledge of antiseptics has increased over time,

Have you ever experienced putting any sort of treatment on a scrape, cut, or wound? Well Joseph Lister's concept of antiseptics helped influence that concept. Antiseptics helps with the limitation of the spread of bacteria and germs. This concept came from the idea that bacteria and germs were responsible for the infections people developed after surgery. This bacteria could normally come from the air, but also came from uncleaned equipment, unwashed hands, and dirty surgical aprons or clothing. For this conflict Lister developed antiseptics which were medicines that slowed or stopped the growth of bacteria. One of his contributions was an antiseptic chemical called, carbolic acid. This cleaned wounds after surgeries, it was also sprayed in

Research shows that Surgical site infections are preventable. According to the CDC, hand hygiene is the simplest approach to preventing the spread of infections and needs to be incorporated into the culture of the organization. Ensuring the use of infection control prevention is an important component of nursing care. Infection control prevention policies must be communicated undoubtedly to all employees. Staffers who do not comply must be re-educated to ensure that all are complying. Speaking up and pointing out that a nurse forgot to wash his or her hands, or notifying the surgical team that surgical instruments were not adequately cleaned may seem like small issues; but at the same time, not acknowledging a break in a sterile technique could mean the difference between life and death for a patient. One hospital that was struggling with high levels of infection related to surgical procedures, implemented a pre-procedure huddle as a team. This innovate way decreased the spread of infection and was a great way to improve the quality of care for patients. As mandated by the Joint commission, infection prevention personnel should provide multidisciplinary education on SSI prevention, to all team members, including

amputation. In 1871, Lister began to use carbolic spray in the operating room to reduce contamination.

* Hand washing is the most important method of preventing the spread of infection by contact (Ayliffe et al 1999). The Nottingham University Trust Policy on Hand Hygiene (2009) states that there are three types of hand hygiene, the first is ‘routine hand hygiene’ which involves the use of soap and water for 15 – 20 seconds or the application of alcohol hand rub until the hand are dry. The second is ‘hand disinfection’ which should be used prior to an aseptic procedure by washing with soap and water and applying alcohol hand rub afterwards. The third is ‘surgical hand washing’ which is the application of a microbial agent to the hands and wrists for two minutes. In addition to which a sterile, disposable brush may be used for the first surgical hand wash of the day although continued use will encourage colonisation of microbes. The third example is the most appropriate to any O.D.P undertaking the surgical role as it is the best way for the surgical team to eliminate transient flora and reduce resident skin flora (World Health Organization 2010). The first and second are important to any O.D.P undertaking any other role within the Operating Department as this is the best way to reduce the transient microbial flora without necessarily affecting the resident skin flora

Ethical challenges are the most profound when dealing with patient safety; compliance with the prophylaxis antibiotic administration guidelines is paramount to a surgical patient in order to decrease the possibility of a post operative surgical site infection. Antibiotic timing requires

Postoperative surgical site infections according to Nichol (2001) remain a major source of illness in surgical patients. Beaver, (2008) point out that surgical infection is one of the side effects that occur after a patient has gone for surgery.