Bone wax

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With bone wax is a medical drug which is used for intraosseous hemostasis. This is a sterile mixture of beeswax and petroleum jelly in a ratio of 2:1. The bone wax comes intraoperatively used by the easy deformability these can be used for temporary sealing of the blood flow at the fracture edges, for example after a median sternotomy, be used. In addition, the bone wax also in neurosurgery, orthopedics and traumatology, thoracic surgery and oral surgery finds its regular use.

Development

The use of a precursor of bone wax was first documented by Henri Ferdinand Dolbeau, this took place during a neurosurgical procedure in 1842. However, bone wax obtained as a temporary hemostatic its fame when it was used in neurosurgical operations by Victor Horsley fifty years later.