welcome to this rapid revision video looking at new medical techniques we've looked at who helped the sick we've even looked at some of the ways that they were helped and we've also had a look at advances in surgery in some of my other rapid revision videos but these are the ones I've not yet covered so it's worth seeing this too one of the problems was with broken bones and the Thomas splint was developed to deal with this a broken leg in World War I was more dangerous than you might think have a look at this pict pict why would transporting a man with a broken leg be dangerous in such a situation well it might not be obvious but the fact is broken bones if they're bad enough have got Jagged edges when shaken and jolted as would be the case in this stretcher bearing party they cut into the flesh inside internally and they cause dangerous internal bleeding 80% of soldiers with broken legs especially those with compound fractures died from bleeding an infection when they were being evacuated from the trenches so in 1916 the Thomas splint named after the inventor was Dev developed and introduced it pulled the brake apart stopping it rubbing and stopping the internal bleeding this helps soldiers recover and cut the death rate down from 80% from these wounds right the way down to 20% a truly stunning Improvement versions of the Thomas splint have been used right up to the present day so it's an a device that really works although the first world war was in a Time time before antibiotic medicines existed there were some new ways of fighting infection a major problem faced by the Royal Army Medical Corps at the start of the war was dealing with with infections caused by gas ganger it was not possible to perform aseptic surgery in the dressing stations and Casualty clearing stations for two major reasons firstly the contaminated conditions and secondly the large numbers of wounded Men new methods had to be found to solve the problems facing Medics on the Western Front in this era before antibiotics the first was wound exis or debridment we can see examples of this in this Royal Army Medical Corp illustration this was cutting away the dead damage and infected tissue from around the wound to reduce infection however this needed to be done quickly as possible to prevent the infection spreading otherwise you just ended up chasing the infection and cutting away more and more and more after the exision the wound needed to be closed with stitches and often antiseptics were used to kill the infection if if any infected tissue had not been removed before the wound was stitched the infection would spread again and the process would need to be repeated that's not all though there was also the caral dayin method antiseptics such as carbolic lotion were inefficient when treating gas gang greine by 1917 the Carol dayin method was the most effective alternative this involved putting sterilized salt solution or saline solution in a wound through a tube we can see that in these images the solution only lasted for 6 hours and so had to be made as soon as it was needed this was a problem if large numbers of soldiers needed treatment but effectively this sort of irrigation of the wound with sterile salt solution really worked to fight infections if all else failed though there was amputation if neither wound excision nor the use of antiseptics succeeded in halting the spread of infection the only way to deal with it is was through the amputation of wounded limbs by 1918 240,000 British soldiers had lost limbs many of them because it was the only way to prevent the spread of infection and death so to recap our final points the specific problems with treating wounds in World War I led to a number of new Innovations which would later prove their value in peace time as well as in war firstly the Thomas splint drastically reduced deaths from internal bleeding from compound fractures remember that figure of 80% of people with broken legs dying before the Thomas Flint and only 20% died afterward because of the internal bleeding was being that much reduced despite the L lack of antibiotic medicines exis debridment and the Carol dayin method were all at least partially successful in treating infection these tended to use a saline solution pumped through the wound in order to sterilize it and if all else failed amputation was the last result however it's really worth remembering that in earlier times it would have been the only option and that would have carried with it its own risks of infection and shock and pain so surgery in World War I and other medical techniques had really Advanced and I do stress you that you remember this is in a time before antibiotic medicines making it all the more remarkable that's the end of this rapid revision video I hope it's been useful to you and if it has please like the video and you can subscribe to the channel for more if there's something that you're desperate for me to cover why don't you pop it down in the comments you could also ask other questions and I'll help if I can but for now I'll say thanks very much for watching and goodbye