[The Penrose drain as a finger tourniquet: a study]

As finger tourniquets are used frequently in surgery of the hand, it is necessary to study the safety of this technique in order to prevent complications of ischemia such as described by Dove and Clifford in 1982. Finger tourniquets applied with high pressure compromise the blood flow to the finger as well as damage the digital nerves. The authors use their previously described technique for controlling the pressure beneath a penrose drain and measure the tissue pressure generated by such a technique by placing a Wick catheter along the neurovascular bundle of a cadaver finger as well as in the soft tissue of an in vivo Sprague Dowley rat hindlimb preparation. The pressures measured by this technique were consistent with what one would expect based on the estimated pressure generated by placing marks spaced 26 mm apart and stretching them the circumference of an average sized adult finger.