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Surgical History


  • Date:   Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:45:46 -0400
  • To:  sthc-l@lists.ucla.edu
  • From:   Daniel Sokolow   < DSokolow AT nshs.edu >
  • Subject:   Surgical History
  • Message-ID:   BDED556178C61F41A3C1CC33670533DA10149C@nt2kwb972xch07.lij.edu

Pardon the crossposts. 

How likely is it that surgeons in the 1920s would have performed an actual operation 
without surgical masks and/or gloves? 

I'm trying to tell if a photo we have is staged (which I suspect it is) and no 
one is wearing a mask and some of the team are without gloves. They all have their 
hair covered, and the surgeons all appear to be wearing the old style collars that 
needed to be attached separately, and ties. There's also a viewing gallery behind 
them, and there doesn't seem to be any partition between the audience and the 
operating room.

As I say, to me the photo looks staged, but I'd like to know if masks were standard 
equipment in operations for the period.

Anyone desperately curious can see the shot here: 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/skinnydan/surgery.jpg 

TIA, 

DS 
______________________________________ 
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator 
David Taylor Archives 
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System 
155 Community Drive 
Great Neck, NY 11021 
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu 

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