Bone Wax® is a brand of bone wax marketed by AIP Medical. It is a mixture of beeswax, hard kerosene and isopropyl palmite used in bone surgery for hemostasis. It acts mechanically and closes the bone canaliculi that contain capillary blood vessels.

Bone wax, also called “Horsley’s wax”, owes its name to Victor Horsley, who published a note in the British Medical Journal in 1892 describing an antiseptic wax based on beeswax, amance oils and salicylic acid. He describes in this note that this wax allows to control the bleeding inside a cut or damaged bone. Nevertheless, the surgeon Henri-Ferdinand Dolbeau already described this wax as effective in cranial surgery 50 years before Horsley’s intervention.

Its effectiveness is justified not only by its buffering action, but also by the fact that it has no active hemostatic properties. Furthermore, it is not soluble in body fluids and remains on the implantation site for a very long time.

This wax has now become a standard for controlling bleeding in bones. It is also suitable for other types of human and veterinary surgery such as orthopedics and traumatology for mechanical bone hemostasis.

Bone Wax® is available in boxes of 12 x 2.5 g, sterilized by gamma radiation. It is a colorless product with a wax-like odor and its blister pack format makes it easy to handle, shape by hand and spread evenly over the target area. For more information, please consult the technical specifications section or contact our team.