Esmarch bandage

Esmarch bandage (also known as Esmarch's bandage for surgical haemostasis or Esmarch's tourniquet) in its modern form is a narrow hard rubber tourniquet with a chain fastener that is used to control bleeding by applying it around a limb in such a way that blood is expelled from it. Thus preventing the flow of blood to or from the distal area, making it easier to operate. The limb is often elevated as the elastic pressure is applied.

The original version was designed by Friedrich von Esmarch, professor of surgery at the University of Kiel, Germany, and is generally used in battlefield medicine. Esmarch himself had been Surgeon General to the German army during the Franco-German War. It consisted of a three-sided piece of linen or cotton, the base measuring 4 feet and the sides 2 feet 10 inches. It could be used folded or open, and applied in thirty-two different ways. An improved form was devised by Bernhard von Langenbeck later on.