Liston, Robert
NAME: Liston, Robert.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Famous surgeon. First use of anesthetic in UK
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None.
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 28th October 1794, Ecclesmachan, Linlithgowshire, Scotland.
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: 7th December 1847, London, England. Aged 53.
DISCIPLINE: Surgeon.
FIELD: Medicine.
LANGUAGE: English.
PARENTS: Henry Liston, mother unknown.
SIBLINGS:
SPOUSE:
CHILDREN:
EDUCATION: University of Edinburgh.
MAJOR WORK: "Elements of Surgery" and "Practical Surgery".
LIFE AND TIMES: At Edinburgh University, where he won a prize for a Latin prose competition, in 1810, Liston began to study anatomy under Dr John Barclay.
He soon became a skilful anatomist, acting eventually as Barclay’s senior assistant, after five years of study. In 1814, he served as a house surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and in 1816, he went to London to get more practical experience at the London Hospital.
He gained membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and, on his return to Edinburgh in 1818, he was appointed Lecturer in Anatomy and Surgery at the Edinburgh School of Medicine. In the same year he submitted a thesis on "Strictures of the Urethra and some of their Consequences" and was made a fellow of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons.
Liston was recognised as an excellent teacher of anatomy and rapidly gained recognition as a skilled surgeon. In a famous operation in 1823, he removed a tumour weighing forty-four and a half pounds from a patient who collapsed with no pulse during the operation.
Liston was expelled from the Royal Infirmary after arguments with the authorities, but his reputation and success made him eagerly sought after. He frequently operated in the homes of patients and he believed the natural recuperative powers of the body.
In 1827, he was elected as one of the surgeons to the Royal Infirmary and, in 1835, went to London to become a surgeon at the new University College hospital and Professor of Clinical Surgery at London University. There, Liston was renowned for the speed at which he worked. Operating before the use of anaesthetics, speed was a vital skill in minimizing loss of blood.
He made several improvements in methods of amputation and in the dressing of wounds, and invented the "Liston splint" for treating a dislocated thigh. Liston's reputation as a ground breaking surgeon inspired young surgeons, such as <influenced> John Marshall*, who were eager to work with him.
In 1841, he was made a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and elected Fellow of the <member of> Royal Society* in the same year. In 1846, he heard of the successful use of ether as an anesthetic by <used idea of> WTG Morton*
On December 21st1846, he used ether on a patient who was to have his leg amputated. The operating theatre at University College Hospital was packed with onlookers an, when Liston arrived, he announced "We are going to try a Yankee dodge today, gentlemen, for making men insensible". He invited the doctors and students to time him, and the successful amputation took twenty-eight seconds. Afterwards, Liston remarked "This Yankee dodge, gentlemen, beats mesmerism hollow".
A year later, Liston died of an aneurysm of the aorta at the age of fifty-three and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.
ASSESSMENT: Liston recognised the significance of American successes in the use of anaesthesia and performed the first amputation in Britain where the patient was anaesthetised.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Liston’s success encouraged <influenced> Queen Victoria* to try anesthetic
He worked with <worked with> John Snow*
ONELINER: Robert Liston, first UK user of anesthetic
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ellis, Harold, Operations that Made History, Greenwhich Medical Media, London, 1996.
Coltart, D J, Surgery between Hunter and Lister as Exemplified by the Life and Works of Robert Liston (1794-1847), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 65, 1872.