Modern Day Surgery

• How did the First World War change surgery?

  • first major conflict where death from injuries outweighed disease
  • over 8 million died, over 20 million injured
  • from 1915, Casualty Clearing Stations were set up as close to the front as possible
• Technological Strides

  • mobile x-ray units allowed better identification
  • blood transfusions were pioneered by the British Army
  • by 1917, blood was being stockpiled/stored up to 28 days
  • new techniques like the Thomas Splint helped reduce deaths by broken femur (1914, 80% died but 1916, 80% survived)
• Skin Grafts

  • Harold Gillies developed ground-breaking new techniques
  • by 1917, he persuaded the army to set a hospital for facial repairs
  • over 5000 servicemen treated by him
  • pioneer of plastic surgery
• X-Ray Technology

  • 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen
  • use rapidly spread after further inventions by Edison and Eastman (x-ray film)
  • technology developed this with CT scans, essential for fighting illness
• Blood Transfusions

  • 1901, Karl Landsteiner discovered different blood groups
  • in October 1915 on the Western Front, first blood banks set up
  • 1921, British Red Cross set up the first voluntary blood donor scheme