Surgical Wound Infection Essay

Dr. Joseph Lister was able to reintroduce cleaniness to the medical field. He used carbolic acid to dress a wound to reduce the rate of infection. This relates to Louis Pasteur because the both of them believed in microbes being the reason for disease so they enforce washing your hands and boiling instruments.

Mr. Gawande starts his literature on washing hands. He introduces two friends a microbiologist and an infectious disease specialist. Both work hard and diligently against the spread of diseases just like Semmelweis who is mentioned in the chapter. Something I learned, that not many realize, is that each year two million people acquire an infection while they are in the hospital. Mainly because the clinicians only wash their hands one-third to one-half as many times as they should. Semmelweis, mentioned earlier, concluded in 1847 that doctors themselves were to blame for childbed fever, which was the leading cause of

Dirty equipment – having dirty equipment which is not cleaned between patients can spread infection very fast lots of bacteria can be spread on a blood pressure cuff for example.

(Science Museum) During the Gilded Age, surgeons were just beginning to clean their instruments with a solution called, “carbolic acid.”(How Antiseptic Surgery) This solution helped surgery become less dangerous due to infections. Amputations were the most common surgery in that time.

The following assignment will take the form of a case study. The subject is a 79-year-old sikh gentleman, who will be known as patient X. Patient X only speaks English as his second language. Patient X has developed a wound on his right hip after being admitted a few days previously, after suffering from a stroke. Patient X has a history of a mild stroke and has slow mobility and uses the aid of a frame to mobilise. Patient X is obese, a heavy smoker and now

In the 1800s surgeons mostly concentrated on speed and accuracy when doing surgery. Thats the most they practiced instead of trying to do it right they wanted to do it faster and the fastest surgeons were considered the best. “Surgeons were famed for their speed, particularly in amputation. As there was still no effective

In this paper we will present critical analysis on the different views on nursing the wound dressing focusing primarily on the possible infections ranging from technique to use of silver to the overall impact made by these choices.

Surgery was very different in 1860 compared to what it is know as today. The surgical field really began to build its foundation during the Civil War. The different techniques

~ Anesthesia was not commonly used by physicians in the United States prior to the Civil War.

Surgery back then was very dangerous because doctors didn't have the right equipment that they have today. Surgery was very brutal, very painful but it was quick. (Amputation 1860) Most surgeries would only last 10 min and surgery was the most common thing. But if surgery was done close to the hip it was most likely fatal. (Amputation today) is avoid because of our advanced and better medicines. If Amputation is takes place there are better medicine for you. Sanitation in 1860 people didn't really know about germs so when doctors used tools for surgery or for some other reason they wouldn't clean the tools and the tools would be infection with many germs. Also they didn't have a lot of medicine nor did they put on gloves with doing surgery. Today they have better tools and are more effective.

Over the years, technology has changed the way medical procedure performs and has made abortion a safer option for women in all social and economic groups. During the 1880s, there were many surgical procedures that were found dangerous and risky for patients. Health professions and other people who were committed to providing abortion to women were not equipped with safe and sanitary surgical tools. They lacked skill, knowledge, and proper concern in abortion, which resulted in a significant number of deaths and severe health consequences for women. Groups such as the American Medical Association

Infection was a serious case back then because antibiotics weren’t around until the late 1920s. Doctors used all of their meds to prevent infection but none can do so they did the practice of ‘debridement’ where they cut the tissues around the wound to prevent other tissues from being infected and after the tissue was cut away, the wound will be sealed.

According this article, modern surgery was shaped because of as a results which were written during the Civil War. George Wunderlich, director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in in Frederick mentions that plastic surgery, modern neurology, reconstructive surgery, and even occupational therapy were invested during Civil War. During civil war a lot of soldiers died because of gangrene which sometimes wasn’t cure even after amputation. Awareness of the correlation between diseases and infection came out of Civil Wars, according the historians. In some hospitals was noted that washed in soapy water bandages rated lower infection cases. So sanitize idea appeared during Civil war and widely uses in modern Medicine, especially surgery.

While medical students were finally able to practice their future trades on a nonliving human body, the mean by which the bodies were obtained was still frowned upon and very illegal. In addition, there were those who would ruthlessly murder others to use their bodies for anatomical purposes. It was probably the concept of giving students tactile practice before handing them a living body, and the shamelessly detestable “anatomy murders” running rampant in the 1800’s that persuaded the government to finally change the legal standing of cadaver use. In 1831, we were given the Massachusetts Anatomy Act. This act allowed for the legal obtainment and dissection of human cadavers (Dyer & Thorndike, 2000).

Beaver (2008) surgical patients commonly developed postoperative fever followed by purulent drainage from their incision, sepsis and often death. The introduction of the principles of antisepsis by Lister and acceptance of Pasteur's germ theory has led to decrease infection rates. The rationale behind it is the fact that this theory increasingly change the surgery from activity associated with infection and death