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Hospital Gangrene: The Scourge of Surgeons in the Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jack Cohen
Jack Cohen*
Affiliation:
St Mary's and theJewish General Hospitals, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
*
5885 Cote des Neiges Rd, Suite 600, Montreal, Quebec H3S 2T2, Canada
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Abstract

Before the days of antisepsis, the infection rate on surgical wards was very high. Mortality from common operations such as limb amputations could run from 40% to 60%, mostly from infection. Hospital gangrene, a type of necrotizing infection, occurred frequently. It would spread rapidly, and the helpless surgeon could do nothing to stop it. The patient would be in agony for many days before death mercifully intervened.

Type
Readers' Forum
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 20 , Issue 9 , September 1999 , pp. 638 - 640
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1999

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