Scrapbook memories, 1911
 |
| photo/courtesy of UC Archives and Rare Books Department |
Today's
patients would certainly cringe at the operating room practices
familiar here in 1911. Surgical masks and sterile gloves were not yet
standard equipment in the early 20th century, even in teaching
hospitals like Cincinnati's. By the mid-1800s, doctors understood that
microbes could cause infection and disease, and they began to carefully
wash their hands between patients and to have their instruments
disinfected with carbolic acid. The introduction of surgical gloves
came after -- to protect the healthcare workers' hands from caustic
soaps and chemicals.
It
did not take long, however, for surgeons to realize that gloves also
helped decrease the high rate of postoperative infections. Medical
students in the early 1900s could also observe the administration of
state-of-the-art anesthesia. The use of ether and chloroform relieved
the pressure on doctors to race to complete a procedure before the
patient awoke, as well as reduced trauma to the patient. Before the
mid-1800s, patients' choices were rather grim: Stay awake, take opium,
drink liquor or be knocked on the head with a mallet.
