Robert Liston

Robert Liston (28 October 1794, Ecclesmachan, West Lothian - 1847) was a pioneering Scottish surgeon. He was likely the best surgeon of his day, noted for his skill and his speed in an era prior to anaesthetics. He was able to complete operations in a matter of seconds, at a time when speed was essential to reduce pain and improve the odds of survival of a patient; he is said to have been able to perform the removal of a limb in an amputation (and stitch the end back up) in 28 seconds. Liston reveled in the swiftness of his operations, seeing himself as a showman, and this made him unpopular within the University of Edinburgh. He also performed the first operation in Britain using modern anaesthesia, utilising ether, a new substance from America, in December 1846 at the University College Hospital, London

Liston received his education at Edinburgh University and in 1818 became a surgeon in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He became Professor of Clinical Surgery at University College London in 1835. He invented locking forceps, and the Liston splint, used to stabilise dislocations and fractures of the femur. His father was Henry Liston.

He died in London in 1847.

Mistakes

There are stories of occasions when his operations went wrong due to the speed at which he attempted them. The most notable example of this is when he amputated a man's testicles by mistake, along with the leg that was the target. He is also said to have cut off the fingers of his assistant, who later died of septicaemia. There is, however, apparently no precise source for these stories.

Popbitch,the reliability of which is irrelevant to the following, records that "Dr Robert Liston, the fastest saw in the west. In one two-and-a-half minute operation he amputated the leg of his patient (who later died from gangrene), sliced the fingers off his assistant (who later died from blood poisoning) and slashed through the coat-tails of a spectator (who dropped dead from fright). The only operation in surgical history to have a 300% mortality rate."

ee also

*William Fergusson
*James Syme
*James Simpson

External links

* [http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst1230.html Robert Liston] at the Gazetteer for Scotland
* [http://www.general-anaesthesia.com/images/robert-liston.html Robert Liston] at general-anaesthesia.com