3.2.2 Anaesthics and Antiseptics

Question 1

Problems with surgery in the 1800s

Answer 1

• Pain
• Bleeding
• Infection

Question 2

Why was pain a problem with surgery?

Answer 2

Patients often died from clinical shock due to the pain from surgery

Question 3

Why was bleeding a problem with surgery?

Answer 3

Patients often died because they lost too much blood

Question 4

Why was infection a problem with surgery?

Answer 4

Before Germ Theory, people did not know that microbes caused infection. Surgeons wore the same outfit and used the same equipment for multiple patients

Question 5

What was used as an anaesthetic in the 1800s by doctors and surgeons? (2)

Answer 5

Alcohol to make them drunk

Opium to numb the pain

Question 6

Humphrey Davey was the first person to use what to numb pain?

Answer 6

nitrous oxide (laughing gas)

Question 7

Who used nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in 1844 and what for?

Answer 7

Horace Wells to numb pain in dental surgery

Question 8

Who first used Chloroform in surgery and in what year? Was it effective?

Answer 8

Dr James Simpson in 1847. It was effective but lead to deaths in high doses.

Question 9

What killed Hannah Greener in 1848?

Answer 9

Chloroform

Question 10

Which female monarch used chloroform during childbirth in 1853? What was the impact of this?

Answer 10

Queen Victoria which made them more popular

Question 11

Ether was effective but what were the downsides?

Answer 11

• it led to vomiting
• was explosive
• hard to inhale

Question 12

Ether was first used by who in which year?

Answer 12

American scientist William Clark in 1842

Question 13

What did Robert Liston use ether for in which year?

Answer 13

A leg amputation in 1846

Question 14

What was the religious view about pain suffered during surgery?

Answer 14

It was God’s will

Question 15

Initially, what was the impact of anaesthetics on the deaths due to surgery?

Answer 15

Anaesthetics increased the number of deaths in surgery

Question 16

What did some army surgeons believe?

Answer 16

That soldiers should endure the pain

Question 17

Doing more complex surgery for longer in unhygienic places increased what? (2)

Answer 17

• The risk of infection

- Fatal blood loss

Question 18

What aided in making anaesthetics more widely accepted?

Answer 18

Public demonstrations of drugs

Question 19

What were antiseptics used for?

Answer 19

Killing microbes in wounds

Question 20

What did Joseph Lister do?

Answer 20

He applied Pasteur’s Germ Theory to surgery

Question 21

What did Joseph Lister think?

Answer 21

Germs explained why wounds from surgery got infected.

Question 22

What method did Lister take to stop Germs infecting wounds from surgery?

Answer 22

Sprayed them in carbolic acid

Question 23

After his use of carbolic acid, from what percentage did Joseph Lister’s death rate fall from?

Answer 23

46% to 15%

Question 24

What would be covered in carbolic acid to reduce the chance of infection?

Answer 24

• The surgeons hands
• The surgical instruments
• Bandages

Question 25

Why was Lister criticised?

Answer 25

Most doctors believed that chemicals caused infections rather than germs

Question 26

What dud people still believe in?

Answer 26

Spontaneous generation

Question 27

Why did some surgeons think Lister's idea of carbolic acid was wrong?

Answer 27

They tried to copy him and didn't do it properly which made them think that he was wrong as nothing changed

Question 28

Why was carbolic acid unpleasant for doctors to use?

Answer 28

It irritated their skin and lungs.

Question 29

What was the later effect of Lister's ideas and why?

Answer 29

10x more surgeries were performed in the UK in 1912 relative to 1867 because the chances of survival improved so much

Question 30

When did Lister hear about the Germ Theory?

Answer 30

1865

Question 31

Who dud Lister test out the Germ Theory on?

Answer 31

Jaime Greenlees

Question 32

How did Lister use Jaime Greenlees to prove germ theory?

Answer 32

Instead of cutting off his broken leg Lister healed it with surgery and the wound did not become infected.Lister published the results of Greenlees results and 10 other patients proving Pasteur's Germ Theory in 1867

Question 33

By which year was Louis Pasteur's Germ Theory widely accepted by British Doctors?

Answer 33

1880

Question 34

By which year had aseptic surgery become very common?

Answer 34

1900

Question 35

What did aseptic surgery methods aim to do?

Answer 35

Completely eliminate bacteria before and during an operation rather than trying to kill microbes on a specific wound

Question 36

What did surgeons do for aseptic surgery?

Answer 36

- Scrub their hands clean - Wore new clothes - Wore thin rubber gloves

Question 37

what type of surgical instruments were used for aseptic surgery?

Answer 37

sterilised

Question 38

Why were operating theatres made smaller?

Answer 38

To reduce the chance of infection

Question 39

What did wars provide for surgeons?

Answer 39

Test cases to try out new techniques

Question 40

What were aseptic developments largely advanced by?

Answer 40

Wars such as the Crimean War