Blood Loss Assessment in the Limited Application of Tourniquet During Primary Unilateral TKA

Tourniquet application in total knee arthroplasty has many benefits and might have a role in the incidence of peri-operative complications the aim of this research: is to look into the effectiveness of the limited application of tourniquet during primary unilateral total knee arthroplasty and compare the perioperative complications with the standard full-time application.

Tourniquet application has been a routine choice for most joint surgeons around the world, reducing intra-operative blood loss and the better clearance of the surgical field and the better cementation technique with a blood-free cancellous bone are the main benefits, while the possible negatives are the pain of the thigh, skin burns, neurovascular complications and possibly increased risk of VTE, and the literature states a new orientation towards reducing the time of application of tourniquet or even eliminating it, favoring avoiding its risks rather than captivating its benefits so the investigator conducted a prospective randomized double-blinded controlled study, and enrolled 62 patients between the beginning of 2021 and august,2022. after obtaining informed consent and approval by the institutional review board, the study was done in Damascus Syria, the investigator followed up every patient for six months, Participants were randomly assigned following simple randomization procedures (computerized random numbers) to 1 of 2 treatment groups, and the allocation was put into concealed envelopes independent of the surgeon and the author and the randomization was performed by a research fellow who was not involved in patient care, the tourniquet was applicated around the proximal thigh in all patients, the first group went unilateral primary TKA with inflating the tourniquet prior to incision and releasing it after closure and compression bandage application, while the second group went primary unilateral TKA with the tourniquet inflated only during cementation and final components application, the procedures were done under general, spinal or regional anesthesia based on the anesthetist consultant, a based-on-weight tranexamic acid dose was given intravenously before incision, all procedures was done by the same surgeon using the medial para-patellar approach , and the protheses used in all patients were cruciate scarifying cemented DePuy Synthes PFC Sigma without resurfacing of the patella, intramedullary guides were uses for the femoral and tibial cuts, the patients were blinded to the intervention during the whole period of the study, while the surgeon and the author were unblinded by opening the envelope by a research member just before initiating anesthesia