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Comparative Study
. 2020 Jan;15(1):59-63.
doi: 10.1177/1558944718787853. Epub 2018 Jul 13.

Tourniquet Use in Wide-Awake Carpal Tunnel Release

Sarah E Sasor  1 , Julia A Cook  1 , Stephen P Duquette  1 , Elizabeth A Lucich  1 , Adam C Cohen  2 , William A Wooden  1   2 , Sunil S Tholpady  1   2 , Michael W Chu  3
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Tourniquet Use in Wide-Awake Carpal Tunnel Release

Sarah E Sasor et al. Hand (N Y). 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common cause of upper extremity discomfort. Surgical release of the median nerve can be performed under general or local anesthetic, with or without a tourniquet. Wide-awake carpal tunnel release (CTR) (local anesthesia, no sedation) is gaining popularity. Tourniquet discomfort is a reported downside. This study reviews outcomes in wide-awake CTR and compares tourniquet versus no tourniquet use. Methods: Wide-awake, open CTRs performed from February 2013 to April 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into 2 cohorts: with and without tourniquet. Demographics, comorbidities, tobacco use, operative time, estimated blood loss, complications and outcomes were compared. Results: A total of 304 CTRs were performed on 246 patients. The majority of patients were male (88.5%), and the mean age was 59.9 years. One hundred patients (32.9%) were diabetic, and 92 patients (30.2%) were taking antithrombotics. Seventy-five patients (24.7%) were smokers. A forearm tourniquet was used for 90 CTRs (29.6%). Mean operative time was 24.97 minutes with a tourniquet and 21.69 minutes without. Estimated blood loss was 3.16 mL with a tourniquet and 4.25 mL without. All other analyzed outcomes were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Operative time was statistically longer and estimated blood loss was statistically less with tourniquet use, but these findings are not clinically significant. This suggests that local anesthetic with epinephrine is a safe and effective alternative to tourniquet use in CTR. The overall rate of complications was low, and there were no major differences in postoperative outcomes between groups.

Keywords: carpal tunnel release; epinephrine in hand surgery; tourniquet; wide-awake hand surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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