Abstract: Tourniquet for medical applications, for example, for stanching the blood in veins for taking blood samples, wherein the tourniquet comprises a clamping lock and a strap which is pulled through the clamping lock and wrapped around the arm of a patient. Clamping of the strap in order to form a stanching loop occurs by means of a spring-loaded clamping wedge which clamps the strap against an inner wall of the clamping lock via a clamping plate. By manually displacing the clamping wedge against the force of the spring, the clamping force can be sensitively regulated, so that a regulated release of the stanching loop is possible. In all these manipulations the tourniquet can be single-handedly operated.