Microbiology – Alcamo Origins of Aseptic Technique

1. Microbiology – AlcamoOrigins of Aseptic Technique The original interest in bacteria was disease.

2. Ancient Techniques • Ancient records show that antiseptics date far back into history: • the ancient Chinese, Persians, and Egyptians had methods for water sanitation and antisepsis for wounds • the ancient Greeks and Romans used silver vessels to store fresh liquids and wine

3. Later Techniques • Pioneers of the American West put silver and copper coins in drinking water to keep it fresh and prevent algae • Settlers in the Australian outback put silverware in drinking water for the same purpose

4. Later Techniques • Mercuric chloride was used to prevent sepsis in wounds by Arabian physicians in the Middle Ages • Hypochlorite and iodine were introduced as a treatment for open wounds in 1825 and 1839, respectively

5. Before 1850 • 150 years ago it was difficult to distinguish between butcher and surgeon • Often the butcher was better • Surgeons advertised their experience by wearing their “surgical apron” over their street clothes. • Massive infections: post operative and post partum

6. civil war medicine

7. Louis Pasteur • 1861 Louis Pasteur proved that microorganisms caused spoilage and could be transported via the air • He placed broth in flasks with long S-shaped necks, then boiled the broth and observed that no microorganisms grew in the flasks • These experiments were the basis for the development of aseptic techniques 

8. Louis Pasteur • Pasteur showed that heat could kill microorganisms • This process was later named pasteurization • We still do this with our dairy products

9. Ignaz Semmelweis • Used knowledge gained from Louis Pasteur • He reduced the number of postpartum infections (sepsis) in the wards of Vienna’s hospitals • He did this by urging doctors to wash their hands between patients.

10. Semmelweis Video

11. Joseph Lister • By the mid-nineteenth century, post-operative sepsis infection accounted for the death of almost half the patients who underwent major surgery • Later in the 1860’s, an English surgeon named Joseph Lister also heard about Pasteur’s work

12. Joseph Lister • He said sepsis was an infectious disease caused by bacteria • It was spread due to contaminated hands, instruments, articles • He made nurses, medical students, and midwives wash hands in a chlorine solution and insisted on clean sheets and garments for every patient

13. Instituted “Aseptic Techniques” in operating rooms: boil instruments, clean hands, no more “aprons” or street clothes, clean operating room (no more “theatre”) • Lister: 1st antiseptic carbolic acid aerosol, and on wound, also rubber gloves

14. Lister Video

15. Antiseptics • Antiseptics are substances that kill and prevent the growth of disease-causing organisms. • They areusually used on external wounds. • Surgeons also use antiseptics to scrub their hands and prepare thepatient's skin before an operation.