Tag: Aseptic Surgery
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Ernst von Bergmann, the surgeon who heat-sterilized surgical instruments
Ernst von Bergmann. Meisenbach Riffarth & Co., Berlin, c. 1890. Via Wikimedia. After Louis Pasteur showed that diseases were caused not by miasmas but by bacteria, Lord Lister pioneered antiseptic surgery by seeking to exterminate these unwelcome organisms with his carbolic acid pump. This martial approach was later followed by aseptic surgery, in which bacteria…
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Lawson Tait, father of aseptic surgery and gynecology
Robert Lawson Tait. via Wikimedia. Robert Lawson Tait was fifth in a dynasty of pioneers who helped transform surgery from a primitive craft to a sophisticated life-saving art. They all worked for a time at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary—James Syme (the “Napoleon of Surgery”), Robert Liston (“time me, gentlemen”), James Simpson (“made childbirth painless”), and…
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Use of masks to control the spread of infection: more than a century of confusion
Jayant RadhakrishnanDarien, Illinois, United States Johann von Mickulicz-Radecki (1850-1905) was an ardent advocate of the one-time novel concept of aseptic surgery. To improve his results, he began working with a hygienist and bacteriologist, Carl Flugge (1847-1923), who pointed out possible sources of infection for the surgical patient, including droplets dispersed from the nose and mouth…