V. Read and discuss the following supplementary text. Entitle the text.

Three main developments permitted the transition to modern surgical approaches – control of bleeding, control of infection and control of pain (anaesthesia).

Bleeding. Before modern surgical developments, there was a threat that a patient would bleed to death before treatment or during the operation. Cauterization (fusing a wound closed with extreme heat) was successful but limited – it was destructive, painful and in the long term had very poor outcomes. Ligatures originated as early as ancient Rome, and were improved by Ambroise Paré in the 16^th century. Though this method was a significant improvement, it was still dangerous until infection risk was brought under control. Finally, early 20^th century research into blood groups allowed the first effective blood transfusions.

Pain. Modern pain control through anaesthesia was discovered by Crawford Long. Before the advent of anaesthesia, surgery was a traumatically painful procedure and surgeons were encouraged to be as swift as possible to minimize patient suffering. This also meant that operations were largely restricted to amputations and external growth removals. Beginning in the 1840s, surgery began to change dramatically in character with the discovery of effective and practical anaesthetic chemicals such as ether and chloroform, discovered by James Young Simpson. In addition to relieving patient suffering, anaesthesia allowed more intricate operations in the internal regions of the human body. Besides, the discovery of muscle relaxants such as curare allowed for safer applications.

Infection. The first progress in combating infection was made in 1847 by the Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis who noticed that medical students fresh from the dissecting room were causing excess maternal death compared to midwives. Semmelweis introduced compulsory handwashing for everyone entering the maternal wards and was rewarded with a plunge in maternal and fetal deaths. Significant progress came following the work of Louis Pasteur and his advances in microbiology, when the British surgeon Joseph Lister began experimenting with using phenol during surgery to prevent infections. Lister’s reduction of infection rates was further helped by his subsequent introduction of Robert Koch’s techniques (such as the Steam Steriliser) to sterilize equipment, rigorous hand washing and a later implementation of rubber gloves.

VI. It is interesting to know that the patron saints for surgeons are:

· Saint Luke the Evangelist – the physician and disciple of Christ;

· Saints Cosmas and Damian – 3^rd century physicians from Syria;

· Saint Quentin – 3^rd century saint from France;

· Saint Foillan – 7^th century saint from Ireland;

· Saint Roch – 14^th century saint from France.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16