Surgery: Antiseptics

The facts

Surgery was a dangerous prospect

for a patient in the 19th century. If
the shock caused by the pain and
loss of blood did not kill the patient
during the operation, it was very
likely that infection from blood
poisoning afterwards would.
Although people had made a
connection between dirt and
disease, this knowledge was not
applied to the operating room.
Surgeons wore coats covered with
the pus, blood and germs of
countless operations!
A surgical operation showing
carbolic spray in use
Antiseptics were first developed by
Joseph Lister in 1867. He realised that germs needed to be destroyed in order to
prevent infection, this became known as 'antisepsis'. Lister had noticed the
similarity between the smells of sewers and operating rooms. He knew that
carbolic acid was used to treat sewers and he tried a weaker version of it on
wounds. This reduced the risk of septicaemia (another word for infection). the
number of deaths during Lister's own operations fell from 50 to 5 percent in two
years.

These figures show the death rates in Newcastle Infirmary before and after the
introduction of antisepsis in the nineteenth century:

Before antisepsis: 59.2%

After antisepsis: 4.0%

Memory time...

• Only 150 years ago, over 50% of patients would die from septicaemia and
gangrene, following an operation
• Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic spray in 1867
• Lister made the connection between the smell of sewers and operating
theatres and this led him to experiment with carbolic acid.