Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Orthop. Jan 18, 2017; 8(1): 62-67
Published online Jan 18, 2017. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v8.i1.62
Tourniquets do not increase the total blood loss or re-amputation risk in transtibial amputations
Christian Wied, Peter T Tengberg, Gitte Holm, Thomas Kallemose, Nicolai B Foss, Anders Troelsen, Morten T Kristensen
Christian Wied, Peter T Tengberg, Gitte Holm, Thomas Kallemose, Anders Troelsen, Morten T Kristensen, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
Thomas Kallemose, Clinical Research Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
Nicolai B Foss, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
Morten T Kristensen, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Research-Copenhagen, Department of Physical Therapy, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This retrospective study was undertaken using data from medical records only. The local ethics committee approved the protocol. Protocol: H-6-2014-FSP-026.
Informed consent statement: Our retrospective study contained data from medical records only. The study was registered at the regional data protection agency (04.12.2012) (j. no. 01975 HVH-2012-053).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. No benefits in any form have been received or will be received from any commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.
Data sharing statement: The data from this study will be available on request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Christian Wied, MD, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Kettegaard Alle 30, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark. chr.wied@gmail.com
Telephone: +45-20-616831 Fax: +45-38-623782
Received: August 11, 2016
Peer-review started: August 11, 2016
First decision: September 28, 2016
Revised: October 28, 2016
Accepted: December 7, 2016
Article in press: December 9, 2016
Published online: January 18, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: The authors performed a retrospective cohort study on the use of tourniquets during transtibial amputation with the primary aim of comparing various estimates of blood loss and re-operation between the groups with or without a tourniquet. The basis for investigating this subject is the theoretical risk of increased bleeding due to vascular damage in the tourniquet group, which may, in turn, lead to increased risk of re-amputation due to local oedema, among other factors. We found no significant difference in the total blood loss when calculated on day four after surgery or in the 30-d re-amputation rate between the tourniquet and the non-tourniquet group.