Surgery- Anaesthetics and Antiseptics
Before
Surgery in the early 19th century is dangerous and painful. There is no way to relieve the pain felt by patients during operations. Surgeons do not yet know how to control blood loss or infection, and operating theatres are dirty and dangerous places to be.Some surgeons superstitiously prefer to wear their ‘lucky’ coat in the operating theatre – a coat worn during a successful operation in the past. They do not wash their ‘lucky’ coat between operations in case this breaks their run of luck.The operating table is often blood-stained. The floor around it is sprinkled with sawdust to stop the surgeon from slipping on blood and other waste as he speeds around the table, carrying out his operation at breakneck speed!Surgery is usually a last resort, and the most common operations are amputations, which can be completed quickly. Robert Liston amputated a leg in two and a half minutes. Unfortunately, such was his haste that he cut off the patient’s testicles as well. Patients are lucky to survive operations without any harmful side effects.
After
Modern operating theatres are clean and safe. State-of-the-art equipment helps surgeons to perform delicate and intricate operations using techniques like keyhole surgery. Some surgeons are experimenting with robotic parts to help them carry out operations. Hightechnology scanners enable surgeons to probe deep inside parts of the body.Surgeons today can carry out operations that could only have been dreamt of 40 to 50 years ago. Although the first human heart transplant only took place in 1967, heart transplants are carried out quite frequently now. Transplants of other body organs are common. Many people agree to donate their organs when they die so that they can be used for transplants, helping other people to recover from illness and to stay alive. Some medical scientists hope that it will become possible to clone human organs for transplants.
The problem of pain
Surgeons had long had to face the problems
Surgery in the early 19th century is dangerous and painful. There is no way to relieve the pain felt by patients during operations. Surgeons do not yet know how to control blood loss or infection, and operating theatres are dirty and dangerous places to be.Some surgeons superstitiously prefer to wear their ‘lucky’ coat in the operating theatre – a coat worn during a successful operation in the past. They do not wash their ‘lucky’ coat between operations in case this breaks their run of luck.The operating table is often blood-stained. The floor around it is sprinkled with sawdust to stop the surgeon from slipping on blood and other waste as he speeds around the table, carrying out his operation at breakneck speed!Surgery is usually a last resort, and the most common operations are amputations, which can be completed quickly. Robert Liston amputated a leg in two and a half minutes. Unfortunately, such was his haste that he cut off the patient’s testicles as well. Patients are lucky to survive operations without any harmful side effects.
After
Modern operating theatres are clean and safe. State-of-the-art equipment helps surgeons to perform delicate and intricate operations using techniques like keyhole surgery. Some surgeons are experimenting with robotic parts to help them carry out operations. Hightechnology scanners enable surgeons to probe deep inside parts of the body.Surgeons today can carry out operations that could only have been dreamt of 40 to 50 years ago. Although the first human heart transplant only took place in 1967, heart transplants are carried out quite frequently now. Transplants of other body organs are common. Many people agree to donate their organs when they die so that they can be used for transplants, helping other people to recover from illness and to stay alive. Some medical scientists hope that it will become possible to clone human organs for transplants.
The problem of pain
Surgeons had long had to face the problems