asepsis

Asepsis, the freedom from contamination by pathogenic organisms, requires that all instruments and dry goods coming in contact with the surgical field be sterilized. This is accomplished by placing the materials in an autoclave, which subjects its contents to a period of steam under pressure.…

asepsis. Instruments and dressings were mostly sterilized by soaking them in dilute carbolic acid (or other antiseptic), and the surgeon often endured a gown freshly wrung out in the same solution. Asepsis gained ground fast, however. It had been born in the Berlin clinic of…