Bleeding, infection, pain

Bleeding

Nothing has improved in the 18th and 19th Century.

Infection

• By 1900 hospitals design and good pracrise kept infectious patients separate from those requiring surgery.
• By 1900 hospitals had a greater emphasis on cleanliness. Wards were kept clean and operating theatres were scrubbed cleaned spotless after operations.
• By 1900 operating instuments were steam cleaned to make them sterilised, rubber gloves, surgical face masks and special surgical gowns were introduced and widely used.
• 1867 Lister published his work using carbolic acid in the Lancet medical journal. He encouraged the use of it to sterilise equipment and spray over the patient to destroy germs in the air. 
• News on Lister's carbolic acid work spread quickly after 1867, but the science behind it (germ theory) was not fully understood so not all surgeons were willing to use carbolic spray. The spray dried out skin, left an odd smell and made doctors hands sore, some surgeons believed it could not be doing the patient much good.
• 1865, Joseph Lister, aware of Pasteur's theory and the use of carbolic acid  in sewage works, operated on a patient with a broken leg and soaked the bandage in carbolic acid. He found the wound did not get infected.
• Anti - septics, surgeons haven't been clean, didn't understand germ theory, bacteria…