• DOI:10.1098/rsnr.2013.0033
• Corpus ID: 71289054

Joseph Lister's first operation

@article{Richardson2013JosephLF,
  title={Joseph Lister's first operation},
  author={Ruth Richardson and Bryan Rhodes},
  journal={Notes and Records of the Royal Society},
  year={2013},
  volume={67},
  pages={375 - 385}
}

• R. Richardson, Bryan Rhodes
• Published 20 December 2013
• History
• Notes and Records of the Royal Society

Joseph Lister was still a medical student in 1851 when he served as house surgeon at University College Hospital, London, under John Erichsen. Here we report the first major operation that Lister accomplished, hitherto apparently missed by biographers. We chart his exemplary dealings with an emergency case of eviscerating stab wound in a woman brought to casualty at night, when he had been in post for less than a month. The case demonstrates Lister's fundamental competence at an early stage in his training. We outline the context of debate and controversy over the repair of lacerated gut at the time, and argue that Lister's period at University College London was profoundly formative.