Do patients benefit from tourniquet in arthroscopic surgeries of the knee?
OBJECTIVE
To undertake a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials to determine whether routine use of a tourniquet is a better choice for knee arthroscopic procedures.


METHODS
Randomized controlled trials which evaluated the application of a tourniquet were selected, gathering information about arthroscopic visualization and operative time. The random-effects meta-analysis was performed using relative risk calculated from the raw data.


RESULTS
A total of five eligible studies were selected in this meta-analysis with 471 participants. There was no significant difference in visualization or operative time between the tourniquet and the non-tourniquet group.


CONCLUSIONS
There is insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that patients would benefit from routinely applying a tourniquet. The use of a tourniquet did not show any advantage to arthroscopic procedures.


METHODS
Therapeutic randomized controlled trials, Level I.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nanfang Hospital, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong Province, China.
Yang
Y
Zhang
Le
L
Li
Jian
J
Wang
Zhi-Han
ZH
Li
Zhan-Jun
ZJ
Shi
D000328:Adult; D001182:Arthroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D014111:Tourniquets