Mikulicz's drain is a name used for a procedure used in

emergency medicine Emergency medicine is the medical speciality concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (often called “ER doctors” in the United States) continuously learn to care for unsche ...

to control

bleeding Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vag ...

. Today, it is primarily used in post-operative

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

as a last resort when all other methods to control bleeding fail. The procedure involves pushing a layer of

gauze Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave. In technical terms "gauze" is a weave structure in which the weft yarns are arranged in pairs and are crossed before and after each warp yarn keeping the weft firmly in place. ...

into the wound, then packing in several more layers of gauze as the original layer is pushed deeper into the cavity. Pressure is thus induced while the

capillary action Capillary action (sometimes called capillarity, capillary motion, capillary rise, capillary effect, or wicking) is the process of a liquid flowing in a narrow space without the assistance of, or even in opposition to, any external forces li ...

of the improvised gauze-sac secures drainage. It was developed by Polish surgeon

Jan Mikulicz-Radecki Jan Mikulicz-Radecki (german: Johann Freiherr von Mikulicz-Radecki) was a German-Polish-Austrian surgeon who worked mainly in the German Empire. He was born on 16 May 1850 in Czerniowce in the Austrian Empire (present-day Chernivtsi in Ukraine) ...

(1850-1905) as a means to drain the abdominal cavity after an

operation Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

. In the past, the gauze was treated with

iodoform Iodoform (also known as triiodomethane and, inaccurately, as carbon triiodide) is the organoiodine compound with the chemical formula C H I3. A pale yellow, crystalline, volatile substance, it has a penetrating and distinctive odor (in older che ...

as an

antiseptic An antiseptic (from Greek ἀντί ''anti'', "against" and σηπτικός ''sēptikos'', "putrefactive") is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putre ...

.The International Journal of Surgery, Volumes 23-24
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References

National Library of Medicine, Rehabilitation of Mikulicz's drainage

Mikulicz’s drain in life-threatening bleeding: a last resort when all other methods fail
BJU International: Volume 94, Issue 9, Version of Record online: 6 DEC 2004. Medical drains Emergency medical procedures {{Surgery-stub