Microbiology – Alcamo
Origins of Aseptic Technique
The original interest in bacteria was
disease.
Ancient Techniques
• Ancient records show that antiseptics
date far back into history:
– the ancient Chinese, Persians, and
Egyptians had methods for water
sanitation and antisepsis for wounds
– the ancient Greeks and Romans used
silver vessels to store fresh liquids and
wine
Later Techniques
• Pioneers of the American West put
silver and copper coins in drinking
water to keep it fresh and prevent algae
• Settlers in the Australian outback put
silverware in drinking water for the
same purpose
Later Techniques
• Mercuric chloride was used to prevent
sepsis in wounds by Arabian
physicians in the Middle Ages
• Hypochlorite and iodine were
introduced as a treatment for open
wounds in 1825 and 1839, respectively
Before 1850
• 150 years ago it was difficult to
distinguish between butcher and surgeon
• Often the butcher was better
• Surgeons advertised their experience by
wearing their “surgical apron” over their
street clothes.
• Massive infections: post operative and
post partum
civil war medicine
Louis Pasteur
• 1861 Louis Pasteur proved that
microorganisms caused spoilage and
could be transported via the air
• He placed broth in flasks with long Sshaped necks, then boiled the broth
and observed that no microorganisms
grew in the flasks
• These experiments were the basis for
the development of aseptic techniques
Louis Pasteur
• Pasteur showed that heat could kill
microorganisms
• This process was later named
pasteurization
• We still do this with our dairy products
Ignaz Semmelweis
• Used knowledge gained from Louis
Pasteur
• He reduced the number of postpartum
infections (sepsis) in the wards of
Vienna’s hospitals
• He did this by urging doctors to wash
their hands between patients.
Semmelweis Video
Joseph Lister
• By the mid-nineteenth century, postoperative sepsis infection accounted for
the death of almost half the patients who
underwent major surgery
• Later in the 1860’s, an English surgeon
named Joseph Lister also heard about
Pasteur’s work
Joseph Lister
• He said sepsis was an infectious
disease caused by bacteria
• It was spread due to contaminated
hands, instruments, articles
• He made nurses, medical students, and
midwives wash hands in a chlorine
solution and insisted on clean sheets
and garments for every patient
•Instituted “Aseptic Techniques” in operating
rooms: boil instruments, clean hands, no more
“aprons” or street clothes, clean operating
room (no more “theatre”)
•Lister: 1st antiseptic carbolic acid aerosol, and
on wound, also rubber gloves
Lister Video
Antiseptics
• Antiseptics are substances that kill
and prevent the growth of diseasecausing organisms.
• They are usually used on external
wounds.
• Surgeons also use antiseptics to scrub
their hands and prepare the patient's
skin before an operation.