Manual of aseptic surgery / by E.A.R. Newman.

  • Newman, E. A. R. (Ernest Alan Robert)
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Manual of aseptic surgery / by E.A.R. Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Carbolic acid was found to have its disadvantages used in the way above described. In a pure state it was corrosive to the tissues, even in solution it was very irritating to wounds, and caused much serous exudation, which prevented the complete approxi- mation of their edges and thus interfered with rapid union. It was also irritating to the patient’s skin and the surgeon’s hands, a drawback to its routine use, and toxic poisoning occasionally took place from excessive absorption. Oarbolized dressings, too, had to be frequently changed, partly on account of the excessive serous discharge, and partly because carbolic acid, by reason of its volatility, was found to disappear from the dressings in two or three days’ time. This was met by fixing it with paraffin, but it rendered the dressing less absorbent and stiff, which were serious objections in practice. For some years the carbolic steam spray held the field, it was however cumbersome in practice ; as the lessened importance of the air as a medium for the infection of wounds aud the fact that such a momentary applica- tion of carbolic could not possibly disinfect it, gradu- ally became recognized, the use of the spray was eventually given up, and Lister himself finally dis- carded it in the year 1887. Though it failed in its special purpose it served its turn and probably saved life in days when asepsis was not well understood and uerial infection was more frequent, by keeping every- thing bathed in carbolic lotion. O In place of dressings impregnated with carbolic
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