Changes in care and treatment - surgery

• Medicine in 18th- and 19th-century Britain saw great change, especially following the publication of Louis Pasteur's germ theory. This led to significant changes in surgery and better prevention of disease in the late 19th century.
• Anaesthetic


  A drug that causes loss of feeling or consciousness
• Surgery in 1800


  • Operations were very dangerous
  • Surgeons had to work quickly because these surgeries caused pain as there was no anaesthetic
  • Patients could die from shock and infections spread in the operating theatre
• Laughing gas


  Nitrous oxide, used as an anaesthetic but could not get rid of pain completely
• Ether


  Used as an anaesthetic but had side effects that irritated the eyes and lungs, causing coughing and sickness
• Chloroform


  An effective anaesthetic discovered by James Simpson in 1847
• Some surgeons preferred their patients to stay awake so that they could fight for their lives
• Religious people believed God intended for humans to experience pain, especially in childbirth
• Some people were worried when Hannah Greener died during an operation on her toenail after being given too much chloroform
• Inhaler


  A device used to breathe in a medicine, invented by John Snow in 1848 to measure the dosage of chloroform given
• In 1854, Queen Victoria used chloroform during the birth of one of her children, leading to its usage being more accepted
• Black period of surgery

  The period between the 1850s and 1870s when longer and more complicated operations led to increased infections and blood loss, resulting in more deaths
• Antiseptic


  A substance that kills or stops the growth of germs which cause disease
• Ligatures


  Threads used to tie blood vessels
• Aseptic surgery


  Surgery using precautions to lower the risk of infection from sepsis
• Aseptic surgery


  1. Thorough cleaning of operating theatres before and after surgery

  2. Frequent cleaning of other areas of a hospital

  3. Surgeons wearing sterilised gowns, masks and gloves

  4. All surgical instruments being sterilised using steam
• Sterilise


  To kill any living organisms, usually microbes that might cause disease, on an object or in a substance