Father of Antiseptic Surgery: Sir Joseph Lister

Hello everyone, Sir Joseph Lister was the pioneer and undoubtedly the biggest benefactor of antiseptic surgery. He promoted the idea that it makes all the difference to make a surgery successful by maintaining sterile conditions before, during and after the surgery. Adding his innovation to what he had imbibed from Sir Louis Pasteur, he devised ways of creating antisepsis by heating the thoroughly cleaned surgical instruments. Further, he proposed the use of carbolic acid or phenol in various concentrations to disinfect the inanimate surfaces in the operation theatre as well as to dress the wounds. Earlier, carbolic acid was used to treat sewage, fight parasites and reduce the odours during cholera and cattle plague. Lister tried to utilise the same chemical and was happy to find a drastic reduction in post-surgical deaths caused by catching infections. It was Lister's genius to make the work of Pasteur on the etiology of fermentation and envisioned this process as the same that was causing infection and gangrene. Today's famous Listerian mouthwash is named after him for his work in antisepsis. He also developed a method of repairing kneecaps with metal wire. Lister's great intellectual breakthrough came when Thomas Anderson, a Glasgow professor of chemistry advised him to read Louis Pasteur's papers. He was really impressed to know Pasteur's view that rotting and fermentation could occur under anaerobic conditions if microbes were present. Pasteur suggested that microbes responsible for gangrene could be eliminated either by filtration or by exposing to sufficient heat or even exposure to solutions of certain chemicals. Lister kept thinking about these fundamentals due to his complete faith in Pasteur. Since the first two methods were grossly inappropriate for use in human wounds, hence Lister made up his mind to experiment with the third, i.e. chemical solution. The prerequisite for this was that this chemical should kill the germs but not the person. Joseph Lister was born in Essex, England and his father was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. Lister was indeed privileged and paternal guidance had a major influence on him. He was an excellent student and became house surgeon at University College Hospital. He worked on inflammation which was considered a disease and not a response by healthy tissues to infection then. Lister was appointed Regis Professor of Surgery at the University of Glasgow when he was just 33. Back then, the world of surgery was really primitive by our present standards. Bed linen, lab coats and even surgical instruments were only cleaned before they were put away for storage. The same probe was shared for the wounds of all the patients. Lister's interest in wound healing began when he worked as a dresser for Sir Erickson. Erickson believed the wounds were infected from the miasmas or bad vapours. Lister wasn't convinced as when the wounds were cleaned, some wounds healed. This sparked his suspicion that something in the wound itself was at fault. This made Lister postulate that the same process causing fermentation was involved with wound sepsis. Lister's great intellectual breakthrough was an outcome of his own genius and interpretation. At the outset, everyone questioned Lister's assertion about his unique approach. Still, he sustained all the resistance from fellow surgeons and made many alterations to his method of wound healing and the iconic carbolic acid spray was only one part of the evolution of antisepsis. As he succeeded, Germany was the first one to embrace Lister's antiseptic technique followed by the United States, France and lastly Great Britain. He received accolades and prestigious awards from many nations and was appointed a peer in Great Britain. However, despite his genius and contributions, his conduct was unfortunately somewhat imperfect in not giving due credit to his sincere co-workers and also ignoring the contributions of his female colleagues altogether. Although asepsis and sterile technique have replaced antisepsis as the primary principle in combating infection now, it was indeed Lister's application of germ theory to the care of surgical patients that initially laid the foundation for what surgeons do now. He directed the minds of physicians and surgeons to the vital necessity of keeping wounds clean and free of contamination. We microbiologists heartily salute Sir Joseph Lister, aptly honoured with the title Father of Antiseptic Surgery for his legendary work and inspiration. Thanks for watching our videos. Please like, subscribe and share these videos with their keen takers. Keep working hard. All the best. Bye till next time.