Comparison of medium- and long-term total knee arthroplasty follow-up with or without tourniquet

Applying non-tourniquet technology in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is becoming increasingly popular. However, there is no consensus on its effect on the service life of knee prostheses. This study examined the effect of tourniquet use on cement penetration and radiolucent line (RLL) to assess whether the use of tournique in TKA affects prosthesis survival.

We retrospectively analyzed 166 patients admitted to our hospital between January 1, 2014, and June 1, 2015, who met the inclusion criteria. The patients were divided into the tourniquet (80 cases) and non-tourniquet groups (86 cases) according to whether a tourniquet was used during the operation. We compared the preoperative data and related complications between both groups. Hip-knee-ankle (HKA), medial proximal tibial angle (MPTA) and the penetration depth of bone cement on the osteotomy surface was measured according to postoperative imaging data. Furthermore, the probability of occurrence of radio-clear lines around the prosthesis was observed.

A total of 166 patients were enrolled with a mean age of 68.52 ± 4.74 years and a mean follow-up time of 105.67 ± 5.98 years. No significant demographic differences were observed between the two groups (P > 0.05). Revision surgery was performed for one patient in each group due to aseptic loosening of the prosthesis. The preoperative and postoperative knee association function scores (HSS), knee range of motion, HKA, and MPTA between the two groups did not differ significantly (P > 0.05). In the lateral observation of zone femur 3A and the average observation area of the femur, the penetration depth of the osteotomy surface were significantly different between the two groups (P < 0.05). The incidence of radiolucent lines differed slightly between both groups in different observation areas,but the revision rate did not differ significantly between the two groups (P > 0.05).

In the long term, TKA without tournique use can achieve clinical effects comparable to the use of tourniquet in many aspects, such as prosthesis stability, prosthesis survival rate, reoperations rate, knee range of motion, and knee functionality.