Especial care should be given to the operator’s hands, for with these he not only handles the instruments, but must also mold the mass injected, thus frequently coming in contact with the needle opening or openings made in the skin.
When injections are to be made in the cheeks of the patient, the mouth should be prepared by cleansing the teeth thoroughly and washing out the buccal cavity with warm boric acid or hydrogen peroxid solution, or any of the preparations of the Listerine composition.
This rinsing should be continued every few minutes for at least ten minutes before the operation is undertaken.
This is necessary, as the surgeon must introduce his finger into the mouth and behind the cheek to mold out the mass injected subcutaneously, and infection could easily be introduced by his fingers during this procedure.
Externally a generous field of the operation is scrubbed with a brush dipped into green soap and water.
The skin is then thoroughly washed with gauze sponges steeped in absolute alcohol, followed with spongings with a 1-5,000 solution of bichlorid of mercury. The whole surface is then wiped off with a sponge dipped in ether and covered for the time being with a pad of sterilized gauze until the operator is ready to proceed with the operation.
PREPARATION OF THE INSTRUMENTS FOR OPERATION
The manner of preparing the necessary mixture of paraffin has been described on page 244. After such preparation, the mixture, still hot, may be poured into test tubes, which are sealed and put away for further use, each tube holding just enough to fill the syringe two thirds full.
When a syringe is to be filled, one of the tubes is opened and the contents are again boiled over a spirit flame, or simply liquefied and poured into one of the types of heaters already described for the same purpose of resterilization.
From the test tubes or the heater, the boiling mixture may be drawn up into the sterilized syringe to the required amount or it may be poured into the opened piston screw cap end.