Infections within the Peritoneal Cavity: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

Physicians in antiquity dreaded abdominal infections. Despite the fact that peritonitis was extremely common, reports of successful surgical interventions were only anecdotal before the past century. Medicine's comprehension of the pathophysiology of the peritoneal cavity is still evolving. The history of our understanding of the process could be considered to be as recent as the current literature. Despite this, the mortality rates for patients with secondary peritonitis have fallen in the last century from almost 100 per cent to less than 10 per cent.

Revolution in sepsis: a symptoms-based to a systems-based approach?

“…1 ). Despite flares of brilliance from ancient times to the renaissance, major strides did not occur until the mid-1800s when knowledge and practice became more evidence-based [ 40 , 60 , 158 ]. Louis Pasteur’s and Robert Koch’s germ theory of diseases, Rudolf Virchow’s medicine and cellular pathology and Claude Bernard’s unifying concept of the internal milieu all formed the basis of the modern era [ 60 ] (Fig.…”

“…1 ). Advances in bacteriology and antibiotic use in the 1940s and 1950s resulted in a slight mortality reduction from sepsis and septic shock [ 60 , 158 ]. In the 1960s, the molecular revolution led to an increased understanding of the underlying pathology of infection and clinical trials targeted blunting the immune and inflammatory responses [ 60 ].…”