Briefly describe Lister's ideas about hospital infection and his suggestions for dealing with this problem. Did these ideas have more impact in the short term or in the long term?

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Millie Popovic

Task 3: Briefly describe Lister’s ideas about hospital infection and his suggestions for dealing with this problem. Did these ideas have more impact in the short term or in the long term?

Throughout most of Lister’s career, his ideas and theories were mocked. The basis for the majority of his work was the germ theory. This stated that germs were tiny micro organisms that were the cause of infection and disease and not the result of it. Because of the ignorance of the medical professions at this time, Lister’s ideas were not accepted by most doctors and his was made a mockery. The doctors could not understand how something that they could not see could exist. This meant that although Lister’s ideas would save thousands of people per year, they would not be nationally and globally excepted until much later in his life. Even the most respectable people in medical history did not except Lister’s ideas. For example, Florence Nightingale did not believe Lister’s theories and rejected them. Lister triumphed in the end, and his theories were adopted into the medical profession. His revolutionary methods caused him to becoming known as one of the greatest surgeons in the history of medicine. In 1897 he was made Lord Lister.

Lister’s theory discussed that surgeons passed on germs when they operated. It also discussed how the instruments and all of the equipment used also carried germs and they were also to blame. He said that it was vital to clean all instruments used and the surgeon’s hands should be clean at all times. The germ theory discussed this and it is this vital piece of knowledge that the medical profession would not accept. Because of this, infection carried on to be passed on and people kept on dieing. When Lister operated, he removed his coat, rolled up his sleeves and pinned a large towel over his waistcoat and trousers. He would dip all of the instruments that he was about to use in carbolic acid, as well as his own hands, to try to keep them sterile and clean. This meant that there were fewer germs to be passed on to the patient and they were less likely to catch and infection and die. The carbolic acid acted as a disinfectant and killed the germs that were previously on his hands and on the instruments. These measures meant that everything was relatively clean and sterile. Lister’s theory was a basic understanding of cleanliness and it is this that the doctors would not accept. Lister wanted the doctors to understand that minute organisms, known as germs, did exist and that these organisms are the sole cause of decomposition. Once they have settled on whatever surface, putrefaction and decay will follow. Lastly he stated that the true remedy against them is carbolic acid. We now know that carbolic is an antiseptic and there are other substances that can be used instead of carbolic acid. His methods and ideas were enthusiastically adopted on the continent and especially in Germany. They had used his methods in the Franco-l’russian War of 1870 with good results. Britain however was sceptical and held back from adopting these proven methods. The majority of doctors in England could not be bothered to study Lister’s methods, but those that did converted to his ways. It wasn’t until Lister moved to London that his ideas and methods were more nationally accepted.

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Within a month of living in London, Lister had the opportunity to prove the superiority of his method. Francis Smith, a forty-year-old billposter, sustained a simple fracture of his right patella on the 12th October 1877 and was admitted to Lister’s ward. First he attempted to unite the two fragments by traction but failed to secure the union and then announced he intended to incise the skin and wire the fractured bone together. This method would break one of the rules of old fashioned surgery. A simple fracture might cause disability if it failed to unite but did not put ...

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