Foot and ankle surgery: Tourniquet placement site to cause as little postoperative pain as possible

Abstract

There is controversy in the literature on where to place the tourniquet (thigh, calf, ankle) for foot and ankle surgery. While some authors prefer the ankle tourniquet to the calf tourniquet, others state that the surgeon can decide between using the thigh tourniquet or the ankle tourniquet, since there was no difference in postoperative pain between them. Where to place the tourniquet during foot and ankle surgery to cause the least possible postoperative pain to the patient as a result of the tourniquet is a common question in clinical practice. The reality is that, unfortunately, there is no consensus on this issue. Perhaps the only possible way to answer this question would be to conduct a comparative study with sufficient statistical power to reach scientifically sound conclusions. It does not seem easy to carry out such a study, but it would be important to be able to answer the question posed in the title of this Editorial once and for all.

Keywords: Ankle; Foot; Postoperative pain; Site; Surgery; Tourniquet.