influences on the development of surgery

Science and the development of surgery Chemistry was important in the development of anaesthetics and antiseptics Developments in the above made surgeons more willing to try complex operations Chemistry was also important in the development of a suitable technique to store blood for transfusion Pasteurs work on germ theory created the platform for Lister to create his ideas apon Lister developed Carbolic spray, sterilising instruments, wearing rubber gloves and using sterilised catgut for ligatures The discovery of the x-ray by Willhelm Roentgen in 1895 made surgeons more confident about internal operations X-rays also made it possible for surgeons to remove bullets or shrapnel from a wound without having to look deep in the wound to find it. This reduced problems with bleeding and infection

Technology and the development of surgery When chloroform was first administered, it was usually done by pouring some drops onto a handkerchief John Snow created a chloroform inhaler which meant that the dosage could be done correctly The invention of the x-ray was also an important discovery as it meant that surgeons were more confident in what they were doing The invention of the hypodermic needle in 1853 by Alexander Wood made it possible to measure an injection of a drug or a withdrawal of blood

War and the development of surgery In the first world war surgeons often treated the wounded close to the front line where the large numbers of injuries and conditions made it difficult A great deal of experience was gained from working with a wide range of injuries and surgeons often devised new techniques to deal with it War can be said to have accelerated the training of surgeons Before the war surgeons wouldn't have touched the brain however the increasing numbers of brain injuries meant that surgeons had to try something To the left is a diagram showing the development of plastic surgery Between 1914 and 1921 over 41,000 men in the armed forces lost a limb, advances in prosthetic limbs included the use of light metal alloys and new mechanisms

The spread of ideas The development of surgery depended on the effective communication of findings, evidence and techniques Producing a medical journal would mean that the ideas would spread most surgeons would read other medical journals so the ideas would spread The publics opinion on the use of anaesthetics were also very important at the time. So newspapers were important for spreading ideas as they displayed peoples ideas