Solving an infectious problem
Joseph Lister's use of phenol as an antiseptic revolutionised surgical practice in the 19th century. But was he the first to use this antiseptic technique?
Deaths from infection byhospital superbugs continue to make news headlines with hospital-acquired infections, though often responding to antibiotics, killing around 5000 people in the UK each year.1 However, such mortality is not new and was, relatively speaking, even more of a problem 150 years ago. Then, operations were relatively rare with even large city hospitals only averaging two or three per week. While the pain of surgery without anaesthetic was a major disincentive, there was also a high risk of death from infection. In 1869 obstetrician James Young Simpson examined the outcome of amputations, the most common operation at the time. While 43 per cent of the 2000 patients treated in big hospitals died, this figure fell to only 13 per cent for those operated on in small hospitals or at home. Clearly there was something lethal about large hospitals.
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