SURGERY IN WOUND TREATMENT 143 



fecting or antiseptic treatment of wounds is referred to 

 when an already infected wound has to be liberated 

 from the infection — that is, disinfected or made aseptic. 



We therefore should not be surprised that the rem- 

 edies used for the prevention of wound infection are 

 entirely different from those used for the removal of an 

 infection already present ; hence the remedies used in the 

 treatment of wounds are divided into two groups: first, 

 bandaging material ; and second, disinfectants. Bandage 

 materials should possess certain qualities to obtain the 

 desired effect. First, they must be porous so as to 

 absorb the discharges of the wound; second, they must 

 be free from infectious germs, so as not to be a source of 

 infection to the wound ; third, they must be soft, elastic, 

 and flexible, so as not to cause pressure on the wound, 

 and must adapt themselves to the corresponding parts of 

 the body without forming any gaps. If there are "no 

 infectious germs already present in the wound their in- 

 troduction is most liable to take place from the outside. 

 To avoid this, the bandaging material should be impreg- 

 nated with some reliable disinfectant so as not to per- 

 mit of infections gaining access to the open surface of 

 the wound. By this means the germs that may gain 

 access into the bandage material are destroyed or find 

 that the discharges absorbed by the bandages are unfit 

 as a nutritive medium for their development. 



Disinfection means nothing else than the removal or 

 destruction of the germs or infection. Disinfection of 

 wounds, or of an instrument, or of the operating field, 

 the air, hands, and clothing, ligature and drainage tubes, 

 stable and resting places, means making innocuous the 

 infectious germs located in the respective media that 

 may bring them in contact with the wound. Most dis- 

 infectants act simultaneously in two or more ways, and 

 Ave may divide the methods into three groups: First, 



