Plastic and reconstructive surgery
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Plast. Reconstr. Surg. · Apr 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialOxygen reduces tourniquet-associated pain: a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial for application in hand surgery.
Why do limb tourniquets cause pain? If ischemia is the mechanism, can supplemental oxygen reduce pain? The Reducing Tourniquet Associated Pain study investigated whether this simple treatment could extend tourniquet tolerance time to facilitate hand surgery under local or regional anesthesia. ⋯ Oxygen is a readily available, low-risk, low-cost treatment that significantly reduced tourniquet-associated pain in this study and significantly increased the time taken to reach visual analogue scale score of 40 or more. The authors recommend oxygen to facilitate hand surgery under a tourniquet and when a regional block fails to control tourniquet pain.