Very limited progress was made in surgery before 1848.
There were serious problems surrounding pain, blood loss and infection.
Place the bullet point in the correct section of the table below.
Problems
Blood loss ● Amputations and other surgeries
often led to a massive loss of blood.
● There was no effective way to
store blood for transfusions.
● Doctors were not aware of
different blood groups should they
need to perform a transfusion.
Problems
Pain ● In most operations, the patient was
awake and often screaming in pain
so the surgeon’s assistants, or
dressers, had to hold the patient
down.
● Patients often passed out with the
pain of an amputation.
Problems
Infection ● Amputation would often become
necessary if a broken bone poked
through the skin and became
infected.
● Even when patients survived the
operation, a high percentage of
them died afterwards as a result of
infection.
● Many operations were carried out in
the patient’s home, which was not
hygienic
● There were often lots of people in
Attempted solutions
● The sponge used to wipe away
blood was just rinsed out, and
bandages were washed and then
reused.
● Blood loss was obviously a problem
so a tourniquet would be used to
reduce the flow of blood in the
artery.
Attempted solutions
● The ‘best’ surgeon was not the
one who cut most skilfully but the
one who cut the quickest.
● Before the 1840s, the only types
of pain relief available were
alcohol, a form of opium, or being
knocked unconscious.
● Surgeons used knives and saws to
cut through the skin, muscle and
bone of a patient.
Attempted solutions
● Equipment was wiped clean or
washed briefly between surgical
patients; it was not sterilised.
● There was little understanding of
how infection happened and the
surgeon would wear old clothes
that were already stained with
blood and pus, rather than spoil
decent clothes.
 the operating theatre, as well as
the surgeon
● and his assistants: medical students
and wealthy people who supported
the hospital with money would
watch the operation, making
infection even more likely.