[Hygiene and asepsis in surgery: introduction (author's transl)]

Since the development of asepsis and clinical hygiene by European and American surgeons in the second half of the nineteenth century, the prevention of infection has been one of the most important concerns of surgical practice. However, owing to the rapid expansion of therapeutic methods, medical practice now makes greater demands on clinical hygiene than has hitherto been the case; it has not always been possible for developments in clinical hygiene to keep pace in this respect, and the closing of the resulting gap represents one of the most urgent tasks confronting medicine today.