TAR & Tourniquet Time

In a presentation at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society in Keystone, Colorado, it was noted that an increase in tourniquet time causes an increase in overall wound complications. Presented by Dr. Dan H. Boack, MD of Germany,  his prospective study assessed 414 patients for 12 weeks following TAR / Total Ankle Replacement surgery between 2003 and 2009. The patients were divided into 3 groups based on touniquet times including Group A with no tourniquet use, Group B with tourniquet use up to 29 minutes, and Group C with tourniquet use longer than 30 minutes.

With risk factors such as smoking, age, BMI, concomitant medical conditions, operating time and additional procedures, Boack found a 5.1% increased rate of complications in the patients from Group C in comparrison to the first two groups. Boack concluded that

"the tourniquet time has an influence on the evalutated wound complication rate in TAR and it is recommeneded to mininmize the tourniquet, especially less than 30 minutes."

All of the current TAR / Ankle Joint Implant options are viewable here.

Reference:
Boack DH. Does the tourniquet time influence the complication rate of TAR? Paper #90. Presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Orthpaedic Foot and Ankle Society. July 13-16. Keystone, Colo. Dan H. Boack, MD, can be reached at Foot and Ankle Center Berlin, Kieler Strasse 1, Berlin D-12163, Germany.