Surgical hemostasis after tourniquet release does not reduce blood loss in knee replacement. A prospective randomized...

We studied the effect of timing of tourniquet release on blood loss in 81 patients (85 knees) who were operated on for total knee replacement. The patients were randomly allocated to one of two groups. In one group, the tourniquet was released for hemostasis before wound closure and in the other group, the tourniquet was not released until the wound was closed and a compressive dressing applied. We found no difference in total blood loss between the two groups and conclude that intraoperative release of the tourniquet for hemostasis is not effective for reducing blood loss in total knee replacement.