76 WOUND TREATMENT 



There are a certain definite number of objects that 

 touch wounds, and aseptic surgery might be correctly 

 defined as the art of preventing these from inoculating 

 bacteria into them. 



The air, the instruments, the surgeon's hands, the 

 assistant's hands, the surgeon's clothing, the assistant's 

 clothing, the operating place, the sponges, the solutions, 

 the containers of solutions, the sutures, the dressings and 

 bandages, the surroundings of the wound (surgical field), 

 and the patient's habitat include all of the objects ca- 

 pable of conveying infection. Aseptic surgery dictates 

 a rigid handling of all of these objects. None must be 

 ignored; each must be made absolutely harmless, or at 

 least as nearly harmless as is possible and practicable. 

 To make a sane effort to prevent wound contamination 

 from each of these conveyors in every operation is a 

 modernism that should no longer be neglected in vet- 

 erinary practice. The methodical handling of these to 

 this end, in a surgical operation, is an exhibition of 

 knowledge and of skill — a spectacle deserving of praise^ 

 and sure to win applause from intelligent judges, anda- 

 means of accomplishing the best results. The veteri- 

 narian should realize there is also a legal side to this ques- 

 tion: that he may be made accountable for infections 

 of his own making, when precautionary measures have 

 been disregarded. 



Air as a Conveyor of Infection 



Except where patients can.be taken out into the open, 

 on a clean grass plot away from the dust of trodden 

 corrals, roads, or tilled fields, the air is capable of convey- 

 ing dangerous infections. The air itself acts only as a 

 carrier of particles which in turn carry bacteria. When 

 there are no particles suspended in the air it is harm- 



