Operative tourniquets

Do thigh tourniquets contribute to the formation of intra-operative venous emboli?

The authors undertook a randomised prospective study to investigate the contribution of thigh tourniquets to the formation of intra-operative venous emboli during lower limb surgery. Patients were randomised to have a thigh tourniquet or no tourniquet and transoesophageal echocardiography was used to detect embolic signals in the right heart during and after knee arthroscopy. Three physicians b...

Chemical burns beneath tourniquets.

Auto-transfusion tourniquets: the next evolution of tourniquets.

In this article, we discuss the relationship between hemorrhagic shock and the pathophysiology of shock using conventional tourniquets. We will focus on corollary benefits with the use of HemaClear(®), a self-contained, sterile, exsanguinating auto-transfusion tourniquet. This discussion will demonstrate that the use of auto-transfusion tourniquets is a practical evidence-based approach in flui...

Surgical tourniquets in orthopaedics.

Higher levels of tourniquet pressure and higher pressure gradients beneath tourniquet cuffs are associated with a higher risk of nerve-related injury. Measurement of limb occlusion pressure can help to minimize tourniquet pressure levels and pressure gradients for individual patients and individual surgical procedures. Selective use of pneumatic, wider, and contoured tourniquet cuffs reduces to...

The Return of Tourniquets

Uncontrolled hemorrhage from isolated penetrating extremity wounds can result in 100% mortality, but significant controversy still surrounds tourniquet use in civilian prehospital care. It’s been proposed that 10% of combat deaths in the Vietnam War resulted from uncontrolled hemorrhage from extremity wounds; many of the deaths were due solely to ineffective field hemorrhage control methods.1 M...