1800s Surgery and Anatomy Flashcards
What were the three main problems with Surgery before and during the 1800s?
- Pain (could die of clinical shock during surgery).
- Infection (surgeons wore the same dirty aprons during every surgical experiment and they did not know about microbes causing infection before).
- Blood loss (could die if they lose too much blood during surgery).
What did Sir Humphry Davy discover?
Nitrous oxide or laughing gas reduced pain and could be used in surgery as an anaesthesia.
What were the positive impacts of Humphry Davy discovering nitrous oxide?
Reduced Pain
Could be used successfully by dentists and surgeons
What were the limitations of Humphry Davy discovering nitrous oxide?
It did not make people unconscious they just became oblivious to pain.
It was never really used widely as Davy’s findings were published in a book that was not well name - the book was given an obscure name.
What did James Simpson discover?
Chloroform was a more successful anaesthetic than ether and laughing gas
What were the positive impacts of James Simpson discovering Chlorofom
Can be used in childbirth
Not irritating to patient or doctor
Completely knocks out patient
Give 3 opposition to James Simpsons chlorofom
People believed that pain was sent from god and should not be avoided
People though it was better to die awake them asleep
No ideas on long term impacts and dosage for differnet operations
Give 2 ways opposition to chlorofom was overcome
Queen Victoria used it in childbirth
James Simpson gave public demonstration
What were the positive impacts of Joseph Lister discovering Carbolic Acid
Lead to aseptic surgery in hospitals
Allowed more ambitious surgery like heart surgery
What did Joseph Lister discover?
Using Louis Pasteurs germ theory, he started to investigate Carbolic Acid, this lead to the discovery of it’s antiseptic surgery
Give some examples of the opposition to Listers Carbolic Acid
Antiseptic Surgery took longer and slowed down operations.
Surgeons could not understand that microorganisms caused disease so did not believe in antiseptic surgery.
Carbolic Acid was unpleasant and cracked the surgeons skin and was more expensive.
Pasteur’s germ theory was not widely accepted in 1857 (when carbolic spray was discovered/published).
Surgeons did not copy his methods correctly and were therefore disappointed with their results.
What did J.R. Liston use during a leg amputation?
-Ether.
What were the limitations of using ether?
-It had very unpleasant side effects.
Why was there opposition to anaesthetics in the 1800s?
- They were uncomfortable for patients.
- Some doctors believed that pain was good for healing.
- People didn’t understand how they worked.
- Didn’t understand the side effects that new substances could have on the body.
How did Joseph Lister discover using carbolic spray as an antiseptic?
- Heard that carbolic spray was used on sewage. He knew sewage had a similar smell to gangrene.
- He had read the work of Pasteur on his germ theory.
- He was prepared to take risks.
