Professor Victor von Bruns paved the way for modern wound treatment in the 19th century
Professor Victor von Bruns (1812 - 1883) taught sur- gery at the Univer- sity of Tübingen, Germany
For centuries, the wax-pectin layer, which surrounds the raw cotton fibers, prevented an effective use of this material in wound treatment. This coating is water-repellent and accordingly reduces the water binding capacity. Thus unraveled lint from linen cloths was preferably used in wound treatment.
For a long time, the drawback of raw cotton had been a thorn in the side of the dedicated surgery professor Victor von Bruns from Tübingen, Germany. Victor von Bruns determined two great disadvantages which had prevented its widespread use in surgery until then. On the one hand, the fine cotton fibers sticking lightly to suppurating wounds made dressing change much more difficult. The fine scab tore off, the patient was in pain. Victor von Bruns improved the procedure by laying a dressing or piece of gauze with a window over the suppurating area, “thus preventing sticking with this intermediate layer“.
In addition, the deficient absorption capacity of the raw cotton had a negative effect “so that the cotton compress laid on profusely suppurating wounds remains dry while the pus runs off down the member under it“, was how the surgeon described the problems. At the beginning of the 1860’s, he finally succeeded in degreasing raw cotton. Initially Victor von Bruns treated the raw cotton with ether to degrease it, but in further experiments it turned out that this process could be accomplished more easily by boiling the starting material in a sodium carbonate solution.
With the degreased cotton surgeons were now able to use cotton in the wound under perfectly hygienic conditions. Secretions and water were now taken up with the new bandage material without any problems.
"According to Prof. Dr. von Bruns" becomes a mark of top quality
HARTMANN cotton wool in a presentation from the 1950’s with the quality mark "according to Prof. Dr. von Bruns and Prof. Dr. Hartmann"
In 1871, the young Swiss industrialist Heinrich Theophil Baeschlin used raw cotton to make hydrophilic cotton wool dressing for the first time worldwide.
Thus the plan to found an international company, the “Fabrik medizinischer Verbandstoffe“ (Medicinal Bandage Material Factory) matured. This in turn is the predecessor of our Swiss subsidiary IVF-HARTMANN in Neuhausen. Incidentally, the company’s address is still Victor-von-Bruns-Straße today.
In Germany, Paul Hartmann commenced the industrial production of cotton wool dressings in 1873. It became an important pillar in the HARTMANN product range. For example, a glance at the sales list of 1909 shows seven quality grades of cotton wool dressing alone, ranging from “Original Hartmann“ to ”Rekord“.
