What should a surgeon look like?

Regardless of his technical level, professional ethics, height and appearance, if you only consider his standard image, I am afraid that an inherent image will immediately emerge in the minds of most people in later generations - usually wearing a brush gown, in addition to a sterile isolation gown, rubber gloves, a hat on the head, and a mask on the mouth and nose when performing surgery......

This is the standard image of a surgeon in later generations.

Thanks to movies or TV series, even ordinary people know that surgeons must be fully armed when they enter the operating room, but there may be slight differences in the details, such as hand coats and isolation gowns, some hospitals are green, some hospitals are blue, and the shapes are also different, and even some medical idol dramas can even be made tight-fitting to show the sexy bodies of the heroes and heroines......

But in the 19th century, surgeons didn't dress like this.

Before the advent of bacteriological theory and surgical sterilization, high-level surgeons, such as operating on royalty and aristocrats, would generally wear gentlemen's tuxedos on stage, perfectly showing their gentlemanly demeanor. Lower-ranking surgeons, on the other hand, operated on the poor, wearing aprons blackened by countless bloodstains, and holding their hands filled with black mud between their fingernails, like butchers standing on the side of the street. If you're unlucky enough to have an operation in the summer and the room is hot, the patient will be honored to admire the surgeons' muscular bodies – they will even strip themselves naked and sweat on the patient!

It wasn't until 1885, the year John is now in his current year, that the German physician Neubert began to advocate the wearing of isolation gowns, and it was not until 1889 that the great American surgeon Halstead began to use gloves. It wasn't until 1897 that another German doctor began to advocate wearing a mask during surgery......

And if you look closely, you can see that they're not necessarily doing this to improve disinfection techniques.

For example, Halstead, a great man in the history of American surgery, invented rubber gloves purely because his head nurse was allergic to disinfectants, so he ordered two pairs of gloves to protect his delicate little hands. And the beautiful head nurse married Halstead the following year, and in the years that followed. More and more surgeons are using rubber gloves because they make them look more professional!

All in all, the establishment of a surgeon's "image" is an extremely long process.

But when Johann Huntelaar appeared in Berlin in 1885 in the bacteriological laboratory of the University of Berlin, the long process of more than ten years was compressed into one day! During this day, John, in the presence of associate professor of bacteriology, Fogel, proved the storage of permanent bacteria on human hands, the significance of the storage of hats and masks, and the great impact of a sterilized isolation gown on a surgical operation and a set of ordinary clothes......

So I witnessed John's work that day throughout the whole process. After sending the student away, Mr. Fogel returned to his office and eagerly picked up his diary and wrote a line with mixed and excited feelings: "It is hard to imagine what kind of change would have taken place in the image of the surgeon if all of John Huntelaar's designs had appeared on the operating table of the surgeons, and perhaps soon, the surgeons would be able to completely get rid of the last trace of the barber and become a member of the scientists together with the physicists and chemists......"

……

What does Mr. Fogel say about himself? John must not have known, and even if he did, he would not have thought much of it. Even if he knew that the appearance of isolation gowns, gloves, hats, and masks would leave a mark on the history of medicine, just like blood type, abdominal impingement, and autoclave sterilization!

But these things also take time to accumulate.

Medical technology is not industrial technology, let alone military technology, and it takes time and countless people to promote it if it wants to be popularized, especially surgical disinfection technology. John must have come up with these things very well in this era. The use of just one glove can greatly reduce the infection rate after surgery, but it will take a long time to fully spread it.

Like the bottle of sanitizer he showed Fogel today.

Iodine tincture, also known as iodine wine, was a very common preoperative disinfectant in later generations, although there were special disinfectants containing active iodine or active chlorine before John's crossing, but iodine tincture still continued to be used. It is a pity that Fogel focused all his energy on John's "reform" of the image of the surgeon. In the end, he even ignored the storage of iodine tincture!

This thing, in fact, really works!

In the same way that there are bacteria in the folds and hair follicles on the hands, there are also a large number of resident bacteria in the skin folds and hair follicles on the average person, and these small things are one of the common causes of postoperative incision infection. The active ingredient of iodine tincture is iodine, which can achieve the sterilization effect of protein precipitation and halogenation through guò, which can be said to be a very useful disinfectant for preoperative disinfection.

Since he was going to start a surgeon, John naturally had to prepare it.

In fact, John originally wanted to make iodophor, after all, compared with iodine tinctures that are irritating to the skin and need to be deiodized, iodophor is much less irritating, and it is more widely used, but it is regrettable that the preparation of iodine tincture is relatively easy, as long as there is iodine, potassium iodide and high concentration of alcohol, but iodophor is ......

John decided to put it there first.

"What's next?"

After walking out of the bacteriological room, John looked at the sky outside that was getting dark, and pondered with some excitement.

Regarding the infection control measures before and after the operation, John has done everything he can, and the next thing is nothing more than to teach other companions, and then strictly implement them in the future. However, this alone is naturally not enough, in addition to continuing to look for opportunities for pathological dissection and slowly proposing the concept of appendicitis to Thomas and others, lumbar puncture and local anesthesia must also be started......

"Huh?"

Just as John was pondering things and walking towards the place where he parked his bicycle, a soft sound suddenly sounded not far away, and then a man's voice suddenly rang in John's ears: "Young man, have we ever met?" …… That young man in front, please wait a minute! ”

"Huh?"

Hearing the suddenly louder voice behind him, John suddenly stopped and turned to look at him with a puzzled face.

"Mr. Koch?"

After seeing the appearance of the visitor clearly in the dim light, John's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly walked over and greeted respectfully: "Hello, Mr. Koch, it's a pleasure to see you again!" Hehe, what a coincidence! ”

"It seems that my memory is correct, we did meet!"

Seeing that John had indeed seen himself, Robert Koch, a newcomer to the University of Berlin, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and laughed: "Young man, I remember that you should be an American, right?" Mr. Huntelaar? ”

"Yes sir, you have a good memory!"

Smiling slightly, John nodded and said. This sentence is not that he is complimenting the other party, after all, the last time the two met was a few months ago, and at that time John was just an ordinary American student, who had just arrived in Berlin for a short time. It was not easy for a big man like Koch to remember his name and country.

However, Koch shook his head at this time and said with a smile: "If it were anyone else, I might really forget it soon, but young man, you made a deep impression on me when we first met, and I can't forget it if I want to." ”

"Huh?"

After hearing Koch's words, John was slightly stunned.

Truth be told, John's impression of what happened a few months ago is blurred. For this Mr. Koch, he is more of a star-chasing attitude to contact the other party, although he is very impressed by what he looks like, but what the two of them talked about John has completely remembered......

More than a hundred years ago, apart from the excitement of seeing a real person, I am afraid that nothing could impress John.

Seeing John's expression of surprise, Koch couldn't help but laugh again. On the one hand, he was naturally proud of his memory, and on the other hand, he was also very satisfied with John's attitude, and the thought of communicating with this young man could not help but arise in his heart again.

After a moment, Koch smiled again and asked, "Young man, if my memory is not wrong, you should be in your second year in Berlin now, right?" ”

"Yes, sir, it's two years old by the summer."

John nodded and smiled.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Koch then asked, "Or are you going to become a surgeon?" ”

"Never changed!"

Without hesitation, John nodded again.

"Yes, it's good to be able to stick to your own ideas."

With no thought on his face, Koch nodded, "It's a good idea to study how to become a surgeon at the University of Berlin, and if you're good enough, you can even study directly with Professor Bergman, who has just made amazing ...... in the field of surgical sterilization that interests you Hey?! ”

When he said this, Koch seemed to suddenly think of something, and his face suddenly changed!

Two burning eyes immediately fixed on John's face, and Koch looked at him with some surprise for a moment before he frowned and muttered in a low voice: "Student of the University of Berlin Medical School, Johann Huntelaar...... It can't be such a coincidence, right? (To be continued......)