Types of antiseptics, methods of application

Until the 19th century, most surgical operations resulted in a lethal outcome of the patient from infectious infections. Fortunately, such an achievement of medicine, as antiseptic, reduced the percentage of deaths from septicopyemia to a minimum. Modern surgery has successfully applied various types of antiseptics, which we will discuss in this article.

What is antiseptics and what is it for?

On the relationship of pathogenic microbes with purulent inflammation of the wounds, even ancient healers who unknowingly used natural components with anti-inflammatory properties guessed. Nevertheless, the real fight against surgical infections began in the second half of the XIX century, when the English physician J. Lister published an article in which he described his method of treating an open fracture with a 5% solution of carbolic acid. Since then, a new era in surgery has begun, where with the development of medicine all new types of antiseptic appeared.

Antiseptic in modern terminology means a set of measures and manipulations, the purpose of which is to destroy microorganisms, as well as their spores and toxins in tissues and macroorganisms. Along with this, the term "aseptic" is of great importance in surgery, which means a complex of measures to prevent the development of pathogenic microbes in wounds. Aseptic techniques also include the sterilization of surgical instruments and accessories. As well as the discovery of anesthesia and blood groups, the opening of surgery in the XIX century types of aseptic and antiseptic have become one of the fundamental medical achievements of the time. It was from that period that surgeons began to actively practice the previously considered risky (with a 100% lethal outcome) surgery on the chest and abdominal cavity.

The main types of antiseptics in modern medicine

Aseptic, of course, plays a huge role in surgery and often does not require additional measures, however, as practice has shown, complete rejection of antiseptic manipulation is impossible. Kinds of antiseptics in medicine can be conditionally divided according to the nature of the methods used and the method of application. In the first case, the number of antiseptic species includes:

• Mechanical antiseptics.
• Physical.
• Chemical.
• Biological.
• Mixed.

By the way of application, the chemical and biological types of antiseptics are divided into:

• Local in the form of treatment of a particular part of the body. Local antiseptics can be superficial and deep. Superficial means toilet wounds and damage (washing with solutions, treatment with powders, ointments, compresses), and deep antiseptic is the introduction of chemical and biological anti-infectious agents into the body through injections.
• General, implying the infusion of the body through the blood and lymph with antiseptic drugs (infusion of droppers).

Mechanical antiseptics

Mechanical antiseptic is carried out with the help of surgical instruments and includes:

• Toilet of the injured tissue site: cleansing the wound from blood clots and pus, if available.
• Primary treatment: if necessary, dissection of the edges and the bottom of the wound, removal of foreign bodies and non-viable areas of tissue, the imposition of surgical sutures.
• Secondary treatment is carried out in the event of an infectious inflammation of the injury and includes re-dissection of the wound, drainage, removal of purulent secretion, fibrin and dead tissue.

Physical antiseptics

Physical antiseptics includes a set of measures to prevent the propagation of pathogenic microbes and the absorption of the products of their vital activity by the tissues of the patient. Physical types of antiseptic wounds include the following:

• Hygroscopic dressing material for drawing a secret from the wound, favorable for reproduction of microbes. This group of antiseptics includes: cotton wool, bandage, napkins.
• Hypertonic solutions are used in combination with dressings.
• Draining means act on the basis of communicating vessels, the method consists in a flowing washing of the wound.
• Technical means in the form of ultrasound, ultraviolet, X-ray, laser and oxygenation. All these methods have a negative impact on the development of pathogenic microbes with high efficiency.

Chemical antiseptics

Chemical antiseptics include measures to kill pathogens in the patient's wound or body with the help of chemical agents, among which are:

• Disinfectants are used in aseptic for processing surgical instruments, surfaces of floors, walls, etc.
• Chemical antiseptics are used for topical application and include various types of skin antiseptics in the form of alkalis, solutions of salts, acids, oxidants, etc. The advantage of these agents is a wide range of antibacterial action, low resistance of pathogens to the preparation, as well as the possibility of long-term storage and absence Significant adverse reactions.
• Chemotherapeutic drugs are used for therapeutic or prophylactic purposes and are represented by antiseptics of synthetic origin. They have an overwhelming effect on microbes, not only in the diseased tissues of the patient, but also in his entire body. Particularly important in cases of the spread of the inflammatory process outside the focus of infection. Chemotherapeutic drugs are valuable in medicine not only because of their wide range of activities (ie, the ability to suppress various types of bacteria), but also their narrow focus.

Biological antiseptics

Biological antiseptics include means of biological origin that are capable of acting both directly on microorganisms, and indirectly. Biological antiseptics include:

• Antibiotics of biological origin are produced by some bacteria, mold fungi. Different types of antibiotics can both inhibit the growth of bacteria, and contribute to the complete death of microbes.
• Anatoxins of some infectious pathogens are injected into the body of healthy people to develop immunity to this bacterium.
• Bacteriophages are viruses (often called bacteria eater), capable of destroying the microorganism from within.
• Nonspecific immunostimulants (interferons, interleukins).

Mixed antiseptics

Combined antiseptics uses the methods and means of all types of antiseptic in the aggregate. As combined means are used:

• Inorganic antiseptics.
• Synthetic analogues of biological agents.
• Synthetically produced organic substances.

Types of antiseptics for wood and other building materials

Various bacteria can cause decay and decomposition processes not only in humans and animals, but also in building materials, such as wood. To protect wooden products in the interior and exterior from damage by insects and house mushrooms, different kinds of wood antiseptics are used in the construction. They may be:

• Inorganic antiseptics have a mineral base and are represented by metal salts, effectively destroying all insects on wood products. This group includes solutions of sodium fluoride, ammonium, as well as sodium silicofluoride and ammonium silicofluoride.
• Organic antiseptics are poisonous substances most often on an oily basis (creosote, semi-coke, anthracene oil, slate, etc.).
• Combined antiseptics consist of two or more toxic substances. Examples: chlorodon, chlorophos, phenol, carbolenium.