How did Lister revolutionise surgery?

And meet the esteemed military medicine man, Dr. Guffquat, who's joined by a young maverick, Dr. Joseph Lister. Dr. Lister has been rocking some boats in the medical world by insisting that his surgeons wash their hands. Now, let's see how they can help you at home. Hello, and welcome to our new feature, Ask the Doctor, in which my colleague, Dr. Guffquat, and I, Joseph Lister, will attempt to answer all your medical quirks and queries. So, Guffquat, old fellow, what's top of the pile? What? Piles? Oh, well, I prescribe a dose of blue pill and black draught. No, no. What does the top letter say? Oh, yes. Uh, dear doctors, I wonder if you could assist. When crossing the road after thoroughly good lunch at the club yesterday afternoon, I was struck down by an out-of-control handsome cab whose wheel passed over me leg, breaking it really rather badly. What would you advise? Well, Mr. Collins, what I would suggest is that you speak to a good surgeon and have him clean the wound very thoroughly with a solution of carbolic acid. He'll then be able to reset the bone and have you on your feet in no time. Now, look here, Collins. Lister's talking through his hat, if you ask me. Well, in a sense, it's going to be the key to keeping the lid. See, if you'd come to me, I'd whip it up in no time. I'd probably use a good rusty old, uh, trusty old saw like this one. That'd do the job. We'd have you hobbling about, all dead, in no time. And you could try a dose of blue pill and black tar to avoid any trouble you come to face. Dear doctor, yesterday I suffered from pains in my body which overnight spread with alarming rapidity to the right-hand side. Gone right off my food and without being indelicate, I'm suffering a certain congestion of the bowel. Any thoughts? Ah, now, you're in luck, my specialist subject. What you're suffering from is appendicitis. And I'm not going to tell you what the serious business is. It's a real killer. Here's the drill. Get yourself some of these, leeches, and pop them on the skin as soon as you can so that they can get to work like this. Come on, Lister. If you can't get any leeches, don't worry. Ask a friend to bleach it. Just a bit. Uh, your local barber. If I may interject, what I advise is immediate surgery. If he's left unattended, there's a very real chance the appendix will burst. The cleanliness of the implements is very important. The cleanliness of the surgeon's clothes and his clean hands. You could try a dose of blue pill and black tar. No, don't do that. Get yourself a surgeon with quicksharp. Now, Lister, are you having a problem with my coat? Of course not. You didn't allow one of those in my operating theatre. What's wrong with it, man? It's got memories, full of memories, covered from head to toe. Well, that's exactly the problem. When did you last wash it? That would be unlucky. Look, see here. Captain Jennings. See? Had his arm off at the elbow after he had an altercation with a cannonball during the mutiny. And up here, the late Lord Wilmore. Had a run-in with a stag. No, big fun. Oh, lunches. Jolly good gravy, too. Disgusting. Massively unhygienic. Ah, yes. Good surgical stink. See? Keeps the diseases away. Joseph Lister carried out the world's first antiseptic surgery using the chemical phenol, otherwise known as carbolic acid. Lister is remembered among the greats of medical science for being the first person to identify the link between clean hospital conditions and infection rates. To understand the importance of Lister's achievement, we need to remember that in the 19th century up to 50% of all hospital patients died of infection. This often occurred after surgery, during which time patients developed what was referred to as ward fever, a non-specific range of secondary infections that were caused through poor hospital hygiene, where surgeons weren't required to wash their hands or even to wash their stained operating gowns. Having read the work of the Frenchman Louis Pasteur regarding the spread and growth of bacteria, Lister became interested in finding a way to remove infection-causing microorganisms from hospitals. Germ theory of disease was only just becoming more widely accepted, but after the discovery that carbolic acid, now referred to as phenol, had successfully been used to reduce the smell of raw sewage, Lister began experiments using it as what became termed an antiseptic. On the 12th of August, Lister used a piece of lint covered in carbolic acid to cover the compound fracture wound of a seven-year-old boy, and he found that over a period of six weeks the wound healed without developing any infection. Developments in surgical hygiene followed. As well as surgeons wearing gloves, they also began to wash their hands in carbolic acid, as well as washing all their instruments in Lister's 5% solution and spraying it liberally around the operating theatre.