title: Clinical experiences with a new tourniquet device.
abstract: Cessation of blood flow to the extremity improves the comfort of the surgeon. So pneumatic tourniquets are commonly used to obtain a bloodless field during upper- and lower-extremity surgery despite the several problems that tourniquet pressure may lead to. In this paper, we present our clinical experiences with a new tourniquet device called S-MART (OHK Medical Devices, Haifa, Israel) and compared the device with the traditional pneumatic tourniquet in terms of efficacy and complications. A total of 30 patients were included in the study. Preoperative systolic blood pressure measurements were obtained, and patients with a systolic blood pressure >190 mm Hg were excluded. S-MART was used in stead of pneumatic tourniquet in half of the patients in group 1. Pneumatic tourniquet was applied to the patients in group 2. The patient groups were compared. No major complications were observed in either group. But it was observed that S-MART was unsuccessful to maintain a bloodless field during the whole operative procedure in some of the cases. In conclusion, application of S-MART is practical, provides bloodless field for a certain time, and does not increase the complication rate related with the pressure applied to underlying tissues, but it is not a suitable tourniquet device for long surgical procedures.
authors.affiliation: Department of 2nd Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. hakanorbay78@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Orbay
authors.forename: Ramazan Erkin
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Unlü
authors.forename: Metin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kerem
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sensöz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000765:Anesthesia, Conduction; D000768:Anesthesia, General; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014111:Tourniquets; D034941:Upper Extremity / Q000098:blood supply / Q000601:surgery*