Lister, Joseph

(1827 - 1912)
Joseph Lister, British surgeon, who introduced the use of antiseptic surgery measures, was born in 1827 in Upton, England. In 1852 he received a medical degree at University College London. Lister was an excellent student. In 1861 he became a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, where he worked for eight years. During this period it was developed a method of antisepsis in surgery.

The Royal Infirmary Lister was in charge of the new surgical unit. He was struck by the high mortality. Serious infections such as gangrene, were a common consequence of surgery. He tried to observe in his office clean, but these were insufficient measures to reduce mortality. Many doctors have argued that the cause of infections in the hospital was "miasma" (miasma). But this explanation does not satisfy the Lister.

In 1865, he read the work of Louis Pasteur, which expressed the theory that the disease causing germs. This work and served as a key concept for Lister. If the infection was caused by microbes, then the best method to prevent postoperative infection - to kill all the germs before they get into an open wound. Using carbolic acid as a means of destroying microbes, Lister founded a new set of antiseptic procedures. Not only did he carefully washed his hands before each operation, but still subject to full sanitize all instruments and clothes. Some time surgeon even raspryskival carbolic acid in the air operating. The result was a dramatic decline in the number of deaths after operations. During the period from 1861 to 1865 the level of postoperative mortality in the men's department of accidents dropped to forty-five percent. By 1869 it had fallen to fifteen percent.

The first great work of Lister of antiseptic surgery, was published in 1867. His ideas have not immediately. But in 1869 he was offered the chair of clinical surgery at Edinburgh University, and for seven years working there his fame spread widely. In 1875, Lister went to Germany to give lectures about his ideas and methods, and the following year made a similar trip to the United States. But most doctors have remained unconvinced.
In 1877, Lister gave the chair of clinical surgery at King's College London - a post which he held for fifteen years. His demonstration of antiseptic surgery in London have generated enormous interest in the medical community. As a result, new ideas began to take more and more. By the end of life Lister principles of antiseptic surgery have been used effectively by doctors around the world.

For his work, Lister received great recognition. He is five years was president of the Royal Society and the personal surgeon of Queen Victoria. Lister was married, but had no children, and died at the age of almost eighty-five. He died in 1912 in the English town Uolmer.

Innovations Lister completely revolutionized surgery and saved many millions of lives. Can not say that nowadays very few people die from postoperative infection. But now surgeons save many patients who did not wish to undergo surgery if the danger of infection was now the same as a hundred years ago. Moreover, now surgeons can perform complex operations for which they were previously and would not take because the risk of falling into the wound infection was very high. A century ago, for example, operations related to opening the chest, were not commonplace. Although modern technology of antiseptic surgery differs from the methods of Lister, it is based on the same basic ideas and is the result of the methods of the famous surgeon.
. Someone may say that the ideas of Lister were only obvious conclusion from the work of Pasteur and that significant achievements of the first there is no
. However, despite the works of Pasteur someone needed to develop and publish the technique of antiseptic surgery. Inclusion in this book, and Lister, and Pasteur did not mean that the same discovery counted twice. Application of theory to explain that the disease is caused by microbes, has the value that the credit is split between the opening of Pasteur, Leeuwenhoek, Fleming and Lister. And because all these people have the right to take its place in our list.
Perhaps another objection to the fact that Lister is on such a high place. Nearly twenty years before his works of Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865), working in Vienna's main hospital, clearly demonstrated the advantages of antiseptic procedures in obstetrics and surgery. Although Semmelweis became a professor and wrote an excellent book about his ideas, he was noticed and ignored. That work, lectures and demonstrations Lister actually convinced of the need for all doctors antiseptic procedures in medical practice.