SURGERY Antiseptics

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BGS History GCSE Revision Tests
Surgery- antiseptics
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1) What was the Black Period of Surgery?

• 1846-70
• The removal of pain made doctors
• over confident. They took too long
• and infection rates went right up

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2) What key discovery had to be made including
year for the need for cleanliness to be
realised?

• 1861
• GERM THEORY!!!

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3) What did Semmelweiss do to stop doctors
spreading infections?

• Made doctors wash their hands (in lime chloride)

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4) What were the ideas and methods of Joseph
Lister?

• Noticed that
• CARBOLIC ACID was
• used in sewers to kill
• the smell. Started to use
• it in operations to kill
• germs. It was sprayed
• all over the place.

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5) What was the key drawback of antiseptic
surgery?

• Very expensive
• Very uncomfortable acid burnt the skin

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6) What was the solution to the problems of
antiseptic surgery, and how did it work?

• ASEPTIC SURGERY
• Instead of killing germs, remove
• them altogether by sterilising
• everything

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7) Which of the key problems with operations in
1800 had not been solved by 1900?

• BLOOD LOSS!