Lord Joseph Lister (1827-1912), English surgeon and pioneer of antiseptic surgery after reading Pasteur's work on fermentation. He realised that sepsi
Lord Joseph Lister (1827-1912), English surgeon and pioneer of antiseptic surgery after reading Pasteur's work on fermentation. He realised that sepsis ( infection, putrefaction, gangrene) was caused by micro-organisms which could be killed with chemical compounds. Lister mainly used crude phenol solution (carbolic acid) and steam as his preferred antiseptics for dressing and instruments. Antiseptic procedures produced immediate results and his methods were quickly adopted. He published the first of his findings in 1867, a year later, the Scottish obstetric surgeon, R. Lawson Tait, published a paper suggesting rigorous cleanliness in the operating theatre reduced surgical infection and was less aggressive to tissue than carbolic acid. The success of his techniques gave rise to the present-day practices of asepsis in surgical procedures.
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Keywords: .lawson, 19c, acid, antiseptic, carbolic, gangrene, infection, joseph, lister, micro-organisms, obstetric, phenol, putrefaction, scottish, sepsis, surgeon, surgery, surgical, tait, tissue
