Who pioneered disinfection of surgical equipment and hand washing, establishing medical asepsis?

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Disinfection of surgical equipment and hand washing are about preventing infection in the operating room by applying antisepsis. Joseph Lister pioneered this approach in the 1860s by using carbolic acid (phenol) to clean instruments, disinfect wounds, and even spray the operating area, making cleanliness a central part of surgical practice. His methods were grounded in the then-emerging understanding from germ theory that microbes cause infection, and he showed that cleaning and sterilizing could markedly reduce postoperative infections. While Galen practiced medicine long before germ theory existed, and Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch advanced microbiology and the understanding of microbes, none of them implemented the surgical antisepsis program the way Lister did. Lister’s integration of disinfection into everyday surgical technique established the standard for medical asepsis that shapes surgical care to this day.