The effects of tourniquet use in total knee arthroplasty: a randomized, controlled trial
Purpose Tourniquets are still widely used in total knee arthroplasty (TKA), although they may be associated with several adverse effects. An observer-blinded, randomized, controlled trial was performed to evaluate the effects of tourniquet use in TKA. Methods Fifty participants who underwent staged...
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Published in | Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA Vol. 25; no. 9; pp. 2849 - 2857 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Berlin/Heidelberg
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
01.09.2017
Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Purpose
Tourniquets are still widely used in total knee arthroplasty (TKA), although they may be associated with several adverse effects. An observer-blinded, randomized, controlled trial was performed to evaluate the effects of tourniquet use in TKA.
Methods
Fifty participants who underwent staged bilateral TKA were recruited for this study. The first-side TKA was randomly allocated to either long-duration tourniquet use or short-duration tourniquet use followed by a 3-month washout period and crossover to the other tourniquet strategy for the opposite-side TKA. Blood loss was monitored perioperatively. The operating time, allogeneic blood transfusion rate, thigh pain, knee pain, limb swelling, clinical outcome as measured by the Likert-type Western Ontario and McMaster University (WOMAC) score, straight leg raising and knee active range of motion (ROM) were also recorded.
Results
The long-duration tourniquet group exhibited reduced total blood loss [−99.1 ml, 95 % confidence interval (CI) −168.1 to −30.1,
P
= 0.0411] and intraoperative blood loss (−225.2 ml, 95 % CI −369.5 to −80.9,
P
= 0.0071) compared with the short-duration tourniquet group. However, there were greater postoperative blood loss (69.6 ml, 95 % CI 21.1 to 118.2,
P
= 0.0282) and hidden blood loss (52.8 ml, 95 % CI 10.5 to 95.1,
P
= 0.0332) in the long-duration tourniquet group. The short-duration tourniquet group showed better outcomes for thigh and knee pain, limb swelling, WOMAC score at 6-week follow-up, straight leg raising and knee ROM. Similar allogeneic blood transfusion rates were observed for both groups.
Conclusion
Total and intraoperative blood losses were reduced with the long-duration tourniquet use, whereas the short-duration tourniquet use would reduce postoperative and hidden blood losses without increasing the allogeneic blood transfusion rate. In addition, short-duration tourniquet use would result in faster recovery and less pain during the early rehabilitation period following TKA.
Level of evidence
I. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-News-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0942-2056 1433-7347 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s00167-015-3964-2 |