Surgical drainage, the origins and where we are today.

The use of drains in surgery has a rich history. Since ancient times, drainage has experienced a long progress, and its development has continued all the way to the present era. Both the indications for drainage and the material of surgical drains have changed over the last 2500 years. Indeed, drainage as we know today, was not always a practice so common or generally so well accepted, as it is today. The current concept of surgical drainage has witnessed not only periods of success, but also dead ends and mistakes of both science and medicine.