The treatment of wounds : delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England on Dec. 4, 1908 / by Sir W. Watson Cheyne.

  • Cheyne, William Watson, Sir, 1852-1932.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The treatment of wounds : delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England on Dec. 4, 1908 / by Sir W. Watson Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Coming now to the third point, viz., the question of preventing infection of the wound after the operation is completed, I think that we have here the most important difference between the extremists and the Listerian school. Lister from the first pointed out that an essential part of the treatment was to pre- vent the possibility of infection of the wound after the completion of the operation. Now infection of the wound after the operation takes place by the growth of bacteria in the blood and serum after they escape from the wound, and in the dead epithelium on the surface of the skin, and their subsequent penetration into the wound along stitch tracks, drainage open- ings, &c. With the view of avoiding this growth, Lister arranged that the discharges from the wound should be received into dressings which contain an antiseptic in such amount that when dissolved by the discharge it will render the latter an unsuitable soil for the growth of bacteria. As was pointed out in a paper read by Lister at the Medical Society of London some years ago, it is not necessary that the amount of antiseptic thus communicated to the discharge should be very great. All that is wanted is to add enough antiseptic to the discharge to inhibit the growth of bacteria, not to produce a solution 4