Aseptic and antiseptic - a combination of the actions of all medical personnel aimed at eliminating microorganisms from objects and medical devices, surgical wounds, skin. Also, these procedures help prevent pathological agents from entering the patient's body.
Disinfection in medicine is given great importance, because this is the basis for the safety of the patient and the doctor, as well as the key to successful treatment. The basis of all surgery is aseptic and antiseptic, the definition of which mainly reflects the adequate and responsible behavior of medical personnel.
Antiseptics are aimed at destroying the pathological flora of the human body as a whole. There are several types of antiseptics: physical, mechanical, chemical, biological.
Physical antiseptics are aimed at restoring the physiological cleansing of the body of microbes (drainage of the wound and washing it with physiological solutions). Perhaps open wound management to eliminate the nutrient medium in which bacteria develop. With the mechanical removal of non-viable tissues, the elimination of the nutrient medium also occurs, which prevents the spread of bacteria.
Chemical antiseptic is a tissue cleaning method in which bactericidal or bacteriostatic drugs are used. Biological antiseptics are also aimed directly at the microbe or its toxin, indirectly through the human body. Antibiotics, bacteriophages, and antitoxins are used as biological preparations for disinfection. This group of drugs not only destroys the microbe and its toxins, but also stimulates the body's immune response to the introduction of microbes.
Aseptics and antiseptics are aimed not only at eliminating pathogenic microbes, but at the formation of normal microflora. Without these sanitation methods, no medical intervention is possible. Therefore, aseptic and antiseptic in surgery are integral parts.
Aseptic is used directly in the surgical room, on the operating table, and eliminates the possibility of pathogenic microbial flora getting into the wound. Aseptic and antiseptic can be mixed or combined, i.e. when several substances are directed to the destruction of a pathogenic agent. In this case, it is believed that combined disinfection is more effective, because aimed at a wide variety of flora.
In the surgical room must be present complete sterility, only then can a positive outcome of the operation be guaranteed. Aseptic and antiseptic is not only the sterility of instruments, surgical field and wounds. It is also a complete treatment of the surgeon's hands, careful care of the operating doctor during the procedure. Of great importance is the treatment of walls, floors and surgical suture material. To date, the problem of sterility of surgical sutures and needles has been solved, because All these accessories have become disposable and packaged in an individual sterile film.
We should not forget about the disinfection of the wound, because often it is the source of infection. If earlier disinfection of the wound was difficult, even cauterization and embalming were used. In modern medicine, there are more and more new means for disinfecting wounds and skin, much more effective than their previous counterparts.
An interesting fact is that for the first time they started talking about antiseptics in France, when the scientist Pasteur discovered that with the use of some solutions and extracts, suppuration of wounds decreases and the purulent processes recover faster. This method had many shortcomings and side effects, but it was he who laid the foundation for asepsis and antiseptics.