The aim of this study is to know which is the routine clinical practice related to the use of ischemic tourniquet in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in hospitals of Comunidad Valenciana and to make a Literature review. We performed a retrospective, descriptive, observational study based on questioner surveys of specialists in Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology in 9 public Hospitals of Comunidad Valenciana 96, 9% of surgeons preferred the use of ischemic tourniquet in protheses implantation, versus 3,1% who did not. Among those who used Ischemic tourniquet, 57,8% preferred to inflate it before establishing a sterile field versus 39,1% who inflated the tourniquet once the sterile field was established. As for the tourniquet withdrawal, 29,7% of respondents preferred to perform it before the end of intervention in order to assess the blood flow and coagulate bleeding vessels before wound closure, while 70,3% kept the tourniquet until the compression bandage was applied. There is not enough evidence in literature to recommend or not the use of ischemia tourniquet.

The aim of this study is to know which is the routine clinical practice related to the use of ischemic tourniquet in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in hospitals of Comunidad Valenciana and to make a Literature review. We performed a retrospective, descriptive, observational study based on questioner surveys of specialists in Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology in 9 public Hospitals of Comunidad Valenciana 96, 9% of surgeons preferred the use of ischemic tourniquet in protheses implantation, versus 3,1% who did not. Among those who used Ischemic tourniquet, 57,8% preferred to inflate it before establishing a sterile field versus 39,1% who inflated the tourniquet once the sterile field was established. As for the tourniquet withdrawal, 29,7% of respondents preferred to perform it before the end of intervention in order to assess the blood flow and coagulate bleeding vessels before wound closure, while 70,3% kept the tourniquet until the compression bandage was applied. There is not enough evidence in literature to recommend or not the use of ischemia tourniquet.