Louis Pasteur: Father Of Antiseptic Surgery

Introduction

Joseph lister is one of the pioneers of infection control. He is the surgeon who introduced new principle of cleanliness and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery. He known as “Father of Asepsis” and the “Father of Modern surgery” because of his defeated one of the major difficulties to successful surgery, the control of infection. Lister worked at time that infections were the norm. it was generally believed that chemical damage from exposures to bad air was the responsible for the infections in wounds and surgeon were not even required to wash their hands before performing surgeries. In addition, he applied on some previous discoveries of bacteriology scientist, particularly Louis Pasteur, who discovered and developed the science

Lister, he built on the work Louis Pasteur’s theories of fermentation and pasteurization. Louis Pasteur known as “Father of Modern Microbiology”. He showed that airborne microbes were the cause of disease. Pasteur suggested three methods: filter, heat, or expose them to chemical solutions. The first two were inappropriate in a human wound, so Lister experimented with the third. In 1865, Lister started his extensive experimentation and noticed that carbolic acid is an effective antiseptic. he started wash his hand and made the surgeon wash the hand with carbolic acid before and after the operation, wear clean gloves and sprayed the air as well to kill the airborne microorganisms. Lister thanking Pasteur personally in a letter in February 1874 ("thanks for having, by your brilliant researches, proved to me the truth of the germ theory. You furnished me with the principle ion which alone the antiseptic system can be carried out" (Tiner 1990, 11; Lamont 1992). Lister treated wounds of patients and sterilized the surgical instruments with carbolic acid (phenol) and found that when wounds cleaned by carbolic acid, it noticeably reduced the incidence of gangrene. The seven years old boy was the first patient who treated with a surface antiseptic when he hurt his leg by hours carriage. He cleaned the wound with carbolic acid (phenol) and kept it covered. As a result, the boy kept free of infection, and allowed him to heal. the rates of death from injuries or surgeries began to fall and Carbolic acid became the first widely used