Notable Staff and Research
In 1856, Joseph Lister became an assistant surgeon at the Infirmary and a professor of surgery in 1860. Running the new surgery block, Lister noted that about half of his patients died from sepsis. Having read Louis Pasteur's paper on rotting and fermentation caused by micro-organisms, Lister experimented to find ways to prevent sepsis. This experimentation lead to using carbolic acid to clean instruments and hands before and after surgery. Lister's methods were picked up around the world and he is now considered "the father of modern antisepsis".
In 1875, a student of Lister, William Macewen joined the Infirmary surgery as an assistant surgeon, becoming a full surgeon in 1877. While at the Infirmary he introduced the practice of doctors wearing sterilisable white coats, performed some of the first bone grafts, developing a one-piece osteotome and performing a number of studies on animal bones that lead to treatments for a number of bone-related maladies. His work was immortalised in a number of medical terms, such as MacEwen's triangle, MacEwen's operation and MacEwen's sign. A laboratory block, built in 1981 as part of the New Building of the period, bears his name.
In 1896, John Macintyre, Medical Electrician at the Infirmary, opened one of the first radiological departments in the world.
In 1908, one of MacEwen's students James Hogarth Pringle, developed the Pringle manoeuvre which is used to control bleeding during liver surgery.
Professor Ian Donald, working in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology, was one of the pioneers of diagnostic ultrasound.
Read more about this topic: Glasgow Royal Infirmary
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