Effect of ankle versus thigh tourniquets on post-operative pain in foot and ankle surgery

BACKGROUND Tourniquets are commonly used in elective extremity orthopaedic surgery to reduce blood loss,improve visualization in the surgical field,and to potentially reduce surgical time.There is a lack of consensus in existing guidelines regarding the optimal tourniquet pressure,placement site,and duration of use.There is a paucity of data on the relationship between the site of a tourniquet and postoperative pain in foot and ankle surgery.AIM To explore the relationship between tourniquet site and intensity of post-operative pain scores in patients undergoing elective foot and ankle surgery.METHODS Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data on 201 patients who underwent foot and ankle surgery in a single institution was undertaken.Intraoperative tourniquet duration,tourniquet pressure and site,and postoperative pain scores using Visual Analogue Score were collected in immediate recovery,at six hours and at 24 h post-op.Scatter plots were used to analyse the data and to assess for the statistical correlation between tourniquet pressure,duration,site,and pain scores using Pearson correlation coefficient.RESULTS All patients who underwent foot and ankle surgery had tourniquet pressure of 250 mmHg for ankle tourniquet and 300 mmHg for thigh.There was no correlation between the site of the tourniquet and pain scores in recovery,at six hours and after 24 h.There was a weak correlation between tourniquet time and Visual Analogue Score immediately post-op(r=0.14,P=0.04)but not at six or 24 h post-operatively.CONCLUSION This study shows that there was no statistically significant correlation between tourniquet pressure,site and postop pain in patients undergoing foot and ankle surgery.The choice of using a tourniquet is based on the surgeon's preference,with the goal of minimizing the duration of its application at the operative site.

Combined effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine decoction and low-molecular-weight heparin calcium on the postoperative deep venous thrombosis in patients with lower limb fracture

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the combined effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) decoction and low-molecular-weight heparin calcium on deep vein thrombosis(DVT) induced by surgery in patients with lower limb fracture.METHODS: Totally 86 hospitalized patients with DVT after surgery of lower limb fracture between September 2012 and January 2015 were recruited and randomly divided into control group and observation group, 43 cases in each group. The patients in the control group were treated with subcutaneous injection of low-molecular-weight heparin calcium, and those in the observation group were additionally given Danshen Injection and TCM decoction. The differences between two groups in occurrence rate, medication time, therapeutic effects,recurrence rate of thrombosis, activated partial thromboplastin time(APTT), and prothrombin time(PT) were compared.RESULTS: The occurrence rate of DVT in observation group(4.65%, 2/43) was lower than that in control group(27.91%,12/43)(P<0.05). The medication time of observation group was(6.15±2.94) d, shorter than(9.76±3.12) d in the control group(P<0.05). In observation group, 2 cases of DVT were cured(2/2); in the control group, 9 cases presented therapeutic effects and the total effective rate was 75.00%(9/12). The improvement of APTT and PT in the observation group was better than that in the control group(P<0.05).CONCLUSION: Integrative TCM decoction plus low-molecularweight heparin calcium is superior to applicaton of low-molecularweight heparin calcium alone in reducing and treating DVT in the postoperative patients with lower limb fracture.