Abstract
Background The use of the tourniquet in total knee arthroplasty is still a subject of controversial
discussion. Previous studies mainly focus on parameters like blood loss and operation
time. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the postoperative outcome involving
parameters such as pain intensity, analgesic consumption, knee function and complication
rate with and without tourniquet use, to find a recommendation for future application
in total knee arthroplasty.
Material and Methods This review is based on the PRISMA Checklists. A systematic research was performed
in PubMed using the key words “tourniquet”, “total knee arthroplasty”, “TKA” and “knee
endoprosthesis” up to and including January 2018. The initial search revealed 686
Papers which were extracted by the parameters intensity of pain, analgesic consumption,
function (range of motion, Hospital for Special Surgery Score, Knee Society Score)
and complications (deep vein thrombosis, surgical side infection, pulmonary embolism).
The program Review Manager Version 5.3 was used for statistical analysis. A significance
level of p < 0,05 was defined.
Results 18 studies were included in this review with 1279 total knee arthroplasties overall
(646 with the use of tourniquet and 633 without). The analysis shows a significant
lower pain intensity until the fifth postoperative day (p = 0,03) and also after one
to three months (p = 0,04) without using the tourniquet. Range of motion is significantly
higher in two to three days postoperatively (p < 0,00 001) when the surgery was performed
without tourniquet. Knee Society Score shows no difference between the two groups.
A deep vein thrombosis appears significantly more often when using a tourniquet (p = 0,04).
There was no higher occurrence in pulmonary embolism and surgical side infections.
Conclusion The use of a pneumatic tourniquet in total knee arthroplasty affects especially the
early postoperative pain and functional recovery.
Key words
tourniquet - total knee arthroplasty - pain - function - complication