Do you know that modern dressings have not always been the way we used to see them? The history of the bandage has its roots in the distant past — at a time when standard dressing fabrics were not yet in sight. In ancient times, leaves of medicinal plants were used to stop bleeding — the leaf was applied to the wound and waited until the blood stopped. The anti-inflammatory properties of medicinal plants made it possible to observe at least some sterility in order to avoid infection of the wound.
Later, strips of leather and fur were used as cotton wool and bandages. The fur absorbed blood well, but the fur patches were thick and inelastic. The healers did not try to wrap them on the damaged surface — a fur bandage-swab, like the leaves of plants, was simply applied to the wound and waited for the bleeding to stop.
Later, copper plates were applied to the wounds — it was believed that copper had hemostatic properties. If a solid piece of copper was not available, then any flat metal objects were used, the alloys of which partially included copper. By this time it was already known that if a compression tourniquet was applied above the wound, the blood could be stopped faster. The first harnesses were the most ordinary leather straps, with which men belted their trousers.
Tissue dressings came into medicine with the advent of canvases. Initially, fabric bandages and bandages appeared in southern European latitudes - in Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. The sunny and hot weather contributed to the fact that the Greco-Romans wore light, loose clothes made of natural fabrics. The same fabrics were cut into thin strips and used for dressing wounds.
In the East, the advanced dressing traditions belong to the Egyptians. In ancient Egypt, a special book of tips and recipes was released, where they prescribed what kind of wounds should be applied to this or that bandage. Bandages were prepared from bleached canvases, and the wound surface was lubricated with special medicinal ointments based on anti-inflammatory herbs.
Ancient Egyptian physicians clearly defined how long one bandage should lie. It is thanks to the regulated approach that wounds in ancient Egypt were treated very successfully. This is proved by the mummified bodies of the pharaohs and their entourage — on some of them you can see successfully healed wounds. Over the centuries, it became clear that the thinner the fabric, the better it absorbs blood. In the highest circles of the French nobility, the finest cotton — cambric began to be used for dressing wounds. Already later, a translucent cotton gauze was invented, from which today bandages and gauze napkins.