Effect of tourniquet use on blood loss and incidence of deep vein thrombosis in total knee arthroplasty.

Tourniquet time and its relationship to blood loss and deep vein thrombosis were studied in 80 cases of unilateral total knee arthroplasty. These data were part of a prospective multicenter double-blind study on thromboprophylaxis for knee surgery. This study reports on the cases done at one institution in which the tourniquet was used in three different ways: group 1, no tourniquet use; group 2, limited tourniquet use for cementing time only; group 3, tourniquet use throughout the whole case. Blood loss was significantly related to tourniquet time (P = .0001). The incidence of deep vein thrombosis was not related to the tourniquet group (P = .9).