J Korean Fract Soc.  2020 Jul;33(3):148-153. 10.12671/jkfs.2020.33.3.148.

Does the Use of a Silicone Ring Tourniquet Help Reduce Bleeding in the Minimally Invasive Internal Fixation with Locking Plate for Distal Femoral Fractures?

• Park KB
• Jin HK
• Hwang IY
• Chang SW
• Na SC

• KMID: 2504548
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12671/jkfs.2020.33.3.148

Abstract

Purpose
This study evaluated the usefulness of a silicone ring tourniquet by analyzing the changes in the perioperative hemoglobin (Hb) levels or amount of perioperative bleeding compared to those of a pneumatic tourniquet or no usage during minimally invasive plate fixation for distal femoral fractures.
Materials and Methods
From January 2017 to December 2019, 30 patients who underwent minimally invasive plate fixation using a locking compression plate for distal femoral fractures were evaluated and classified as a silicone ring tourniquet (Group 1), a pneumatic tourniquet (Group 2), and no usage (Group 3). The variables for analysis were age, sex, preoperative Hb (preHb), postoperative 72-hour Hb (postHb), differences between preHb and postHb (preHb-postHb), amount of intraoperative and overall transfusion, estimated unit of transfusion corrected by preHb-postHb and total transfusion (Hb-lost), amount of intraoperative and postoperative and total bleeding. One-way ANOVA was used to identify the differences between the groups.
Results
The age, sex, operation time, preHb, preHb-postHb, amount of intraoperative and overall transfusion and Hb-lost were similar in the two groups. The amount of intraoperative bleeding was significantly lower in Group 1 than Group 3 (p=0.004), but there was no difference in the amount of postoperative and total bleeding between the two groups.
Conclusion
The use of a silicone ring tourniquet in the minimally invasive plate fixation for distal femoral fractures decreased the amount of intraoperative bleeding compared to no use of a tourniquet.

Keyword

Femoral fractures; Internal fracture fixation; Tourniquets; Hemorrhage; Hemoglobins