Tourniquet use makes little or no difference to function at 12 months, has little or no effect on quality of life<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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TUESDAY, Dec. 15, 2020 (HealthDay News) — For patients undergoing knee replacement surgery, use of a tourniquet may increase the risk for serious adverse events, according to a review published online Dec. 8 in the Cochrane Library.<\/em><\/p>\n Imran Ahmed, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the benefits and harms of tourniquet use in knee replacement surgery in a review of 41 randomized controlled trials with 2,819 participants.<\/p>\n The researchers found that pain was ranked at 4.56 points after surgery without a tourniquet and at 1.25 points higher with a tourniquet at postoperative day 1 (absolute difference, 12.5 percent higher pain scores). Tourniquet use probably made little or no difference to function at 12 months, based on a minimal clinically important difference of 5.3 for the Knee Society Score and 5.0 for the Oxford Knee Score. After surgery without a tourniquet, mean function was 90.03 points and was 0.29 points worse with a tourniquet. Tourniquet use had little or no effect on success and little or no effect on quality of life. The risk for serious adverse events was probably higher with than without a tourniquet (59 versus 29 per 1,000 reported events following surgery; risk ratio, 1.73).<\/p>\n “The evidence indicates that knee replacement surgery performed with a tourniquet increases the risk of serious complications needing additional health care, many of which might be avoided if a tourniquet is not used,” a coauthor said in a statement.<\/p>\n