Joseph lister

Contribution to Science by Joseph Lister, 1st Baron

                 

Born	5 April 1827 Upton , Essex
Died	10 February 1912        (aged 84)
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Medical
Institutions	University of Glasgow University of Edinburgh King’s College London University College London
Alma mater	University College                             London
Known for	Surgical Techniques
Notable awards	Royal Medal(1880) Albert Medal(1894) Copley Medal(1902)

                    

           

                     

            

  

Joseph Lister was surgeon and a pioneer of Antiseptic surgery.  He was  known as ‘Father of Antiseptic Surgery’. 

He attended  University  College London . He initially studied botany a bachelor of Arts degree in 1847. He registered as a medical student and graduated with Honours as Bachelor of  medicine ,  subsequently entering the Royal College of Surgeons at the age of 26.                                                                                            In  1854   became Surgeon at the University of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in Scotland .                   

             

 

 Until Lister's studies of surgery, most people believed that chemical damage from exposures to bad air was responsible for infections in wounds. Hospital wards were occasionally aired out at midday as a precaution against the spread of infection via miasma, but facilities for washing hands or a patient's wounds were not available. A surgeon was not required to wash his hands before seeing a patient because such practices were not considered necessary to avoid infection.

While he was a professor of surgery at the University of Glasgow,  Lister became aware of a paper published by the French chemist,  Louis Pasteur, showing that rotting and fermentation food could occur under  anaerobic conditions if micro-organisms were present. Pasteur suggested three methods to eliminate the micro-organisms responsible for gangrene: filtration, exposure to heat, or exposure to solution/chemical solutions.

Lister confirmed Pasteur's conclusions with his own experiments and decided to use his findings to develop "antiseptic" techniques for wounds. As the first two methods suggested by Pasteur were inappropriate for the treatment of human tissue, Lister experimented with the third. By applying Louis Pasteur’s advances in microbiology, he promoted the idea of sterile surgery. Lister successfully introduced carbolic acid ( now known as Phenol ) to sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds, which led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery safer for patients.

Therefore Lister the results of spraying instruments, the surgical incisions, and dressings with a solution of carbolic acid. Lister found that the solution swabbed on wounds remarkably reduced the incidence of gangrene tested.

               

 In August 1865, Lister applied a piece of lint dipped in carbolic acid solution onto the wound of an eleven-year-old boy at Glasgow Infirmary, who had sustained a compound fracture after a cart wheel had passed over his leg. After four days, he renewed the pad and discovered that no infection had developed, and after a total of six weeks he was amazed to discover that the boy's bones had fused back together, without the danger of suppuration. He subsequently published his results in The Lancet^[    in a series of 6 articles, running from March through July 1867.

 In 1867  it became the first widely used antiseptic in surgery. He first suspected it would prove an adequate  disinfectant because it was used to ease the stench from fields irrigated with sewage waste. He presumed it was safe because fields treated with carbolic acid produced no apparent ill effect on livestock that grazed upon them.

He instructed surgeons under his responsibility to wear clean gloves and wash their hands before and after operations with 5% carbolic acid solutions. Instruments were also washed in the same solution and assistants sprayed the solution in the operating theatre. One of his additional suggestions was to stop using porous natural materials in manufacturing the handles of medical instruments.

                                   

                           

 His fame had spread by then, and audiences of 400 often came to hear him lecture. As the "germ theory of disease" became more widely accepted, it was realised that infection could be better avoided by preventing bacteria from getting into wounds in the first place. This led to the rise of sterile surgery. On the centenary of his death, in 1912, Lister was considered by most in the medical field as "the father of modern surgery".

Lister moved from Scotland to King’s College Hospital, in London. In 1881 he was elected President of the Clinical Society of London.  He also developed a method of repairing Kneecaps with metal wire and improved the technique of mastectomy.

The number of patients operated on by Lister who died fell dramatically.

Years	Total cases	Recovered	Died	Death rate
1864 to 1866	35	19	16	45.7%
1867 to 1870	40	34	6	15.0%

Lister was president of the Royal Society between 1895 and 1900. Following his death, a Memorial Fund led to the founding of the Lister Medal ,  seen as the most prestigious prize that could be awarded to a surgeon.

Among foreign honours, he received Prussia’s highest order of merit, the Pour Le  merite.

Two postage stamps were issued in September 1965 to honour Lister for his contributions to antiseptic surgery.

                            
          

Lister is one of the two surgeons in the United Kingdom who have the honour of having a public monument in London. Lister's stands in Portland Place; the other surgeon is John. There is a statue of Lister in Kelvingrove Park , Glasgow, celebrating his links with the city.

                   

 

              

A building at Glasgow Royal Infirmary which houses cytopathology, microbiology and pathology departments was named in his honour to recognise his work at the hospital.

Lister  Hospital  in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. England is named in honour of Lister.

                                                               From  - Arvind Chougule