Editorial

200th birth anniversary of Ignatius Philipp Semmelweis

Bruno Atalić orcid.org/0000-0003-0741-9632 ; Klinički zavod za radiologiju, Klinički bolnički centar Rijeka, Rijeka, Hrvatska

Abstract

Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis’s significance for the history of medicine lies in his discovery of the cause of puerperal fever. He discovered it during his work at the First Obstetrics Clinic of the Vienna’s Allgemeines Krankenhaus. Since the mentioned Clinic, led by the doctors, had much higher mortality rates of the child-bearing women than the Second Obstetrics Clinic, led by the midwives, he wanted to determine the causes of such a state. He came to the conclusion that puerperal sepsis was transmitted by the doctors and medical students, who after performing the anatomical sections started to perform the births with their hands beforehand washed only with soap. Semmelweis instead proposed a mandatory hand washing in a potassium-hypochlorite solution thus making the mortality at the First equivalent to the mortality at the Second Obstetrics Clinic. Despite this, his discovery was rejected by the
established medical circuits.

Keywords

Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis; puerperal sepsis; Obstetrics

Hrčak ID:

205111

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/205111

Publication date:

15.6.2018.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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