LISTER CENTENARY a surgical legacy Celebrating


keen experimenter, having carried out numerous studies on the eye, hair, the inflammatory process and coagulation, among others. It was to the attention of this ‘prepared mind’ that his colleague, Dr Tomas Anderson, a chemistry professor, brought the recent work of Pasteur, who had shown in experiments on wine that tiny living organisms could ruin the fermentation process. Lister repeated some of Pasteur’s experiments and was soon


convinced that the sepsis that so oſten wreaked havoc among surgical patients was not, in fact, due to an ‘impure’ state of the air, as was generally believed, but to the ‘germs’ in Pasteur’s theory. He thus set about preventing these germs from entering surgical wounds by erecting barriers composed of dressings saturated in carbolic acid – a compound then used in the treatment of sewage – and covered with a tin cap. Tese initial trials, carried out on patients with compound


fractures, which were oſten fatal traumatic injuries, yielded hugely successful results – to Lister’s surprise, of the first 11 cases, 10 survived, with only one requiring amputation. It was the start of a medical revolution that is still reverberating


today – and which explains why, 100 years aſter his death, the surgical community will be marking the occasion with a series of centenary celebrations.


A century has passed since the death of the great surgical innovator Joseph Lister. Here Adam Campbell looks at the man and his lasting influence


PHOTOGRAPHS: ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS EDINBURGH I


N THE field of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind,” said microbiologist Louis Pasteur in a lecture in 1854. Eleven years later the surgeon Joseph Lister was to exemplify


this observation perfectly when he undertook his early trials with antiseptic agents at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Lister, whose father was a microscope maker, had long been a


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Learning from Lister “Te contribution of Joseph Lister to surgery is quite comparable in importance to the invention of radio or the internal combustion engine,” says Dugald Gardner, a professor of histopathology and emeritus conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), who has written on Lister’s life and work. As part of the celebrations, the RCSEd will be throwing their doors


open for a conference celebrating the life and work of their illustrious former fellow as well as placing it in a contemporary context. King’s College Hospital in London, where Lister was professor of clinical surgery from 1877 to 1893, has also teamed up with Te Royal Society and Te Royal College of Surgeons of England to host a conference entitled ‘Learning from Lister’. “Lister remains relevant today because his work helped to change


the practices of surgery, making them safer and more effective,” says Brian Hurwitz, professor of medicine and the arts at King’s. “Te conference will provide an opportunity for all those interested in the development of hospital healthcare policy and translational practices, to discuss their respective approaches to surgery today.” Lister was an important figure in the Royal Colleges not just by


SUMMONS


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