The aseptic treatment of wounds in ophthalmic surgery / by Angus McGillivray.

  • MacGillivray, Angus.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The aseptic treatment of wounds in ophthalmic surgery / by Angus McGillivray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    necessary, but were even harmful, and this resulted in certain important modifications in the original methods. These modifications consisted chiefly in reducing, by a very appreciable extent, the strength of the antiseptics employed, especially those that came in contact with the wound, and the abandonment of the carbolic spray. The dangers of aerial infection, which haunted the sur- geon like a nightmare, were removed by the simple dis- covery that micro-organisms, like dust particles, were subject to the law of gravitation. This led to the adop- tion of special precautions, which have been successful in removing this formidable difficulty, or at least making it no longer a practical objection. Next came the disin- fection of instruments, mops, dressings, and ligatures by heat sterilisation, as immersion in chemical “ antiseptics ” could not be relied upon. Thus the use of chemical disinfectants became restricted, in the practice of most surgeons, to the disinfection of the surgeon’s hands, and the skin over the part to be operated on. The important researches of Lister, Tyndall, Pasteur, and others, proving that unexposed healthy tissues are free from micro-organisms, and that suppuration is due to the introduction of micro-organisms from without, paved the way for still further modifying, or simplifying, antiseptic methods. It was not, however, until the im- portance of the natural antiseptic property, or natural immunity of living tissues came to be more appreciated, that some surgeons discarded chemical antiseptics in ope- rations altogether, and preferred normal saline solution, as that produced no irritation of the wounded tissues, tending rather to keep them as nearly as possible in their physiological condition. It is well known that antiseptic solutions, however weak, irritate or benumb the cut tissues of a wound, and that this irritation is, as a rule, in proportion to the strength of the solution employed. In some cases the antiseptic actually destroys the tissues ou the surface of the wound altogether, so that, before union takes place,