Quantification and Comparison of D-dimer after Pneumatic Tourniquet Release in Patients Undergoing Arthroscopic Knee Surgery on General Anesthesia and Epidural Anesthesia. |
Haeng Gyun Kim, Mi Woon Kim, Eun Jee Park, Su Jin Kim, Seung Weon Ahn |
1Deparment of Anesthesilogy, School of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeongju, Korea. mwkim@dumc.or.kr 2Deparment of Anesthesilogy, 21 Century Joeun Hospital, Ulsan, Korea. |
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Abstract |
BACKGROUND Several studies have indicated that lumbar epidural anesthesia may decrease the incidence of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, particulary after total hip replacement. Moreover venous thromboembolism also occurs after the release of a tourniquet in orthopedic surgery. The d-dimer test has been reported to be useful for predicting lower limb DVT and PE. Of the d-dimer test methods, the latex agglutination method shows excellent sensitivity and specificity. METHODS We compared the quantity of d-dimer for General (n = 21) and Epidural (n = 20) anesthesia after tourniquet release in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. RESULTS D-dimer significantly increased after tourniquet release in both groups, whereas the increase of d-dimer in the Epidural group was no smaller than that in the General group. Epidural group showed a correlation between tourniquet application and d-dimer. CONCLUSIONS The present data suggest that DVT and PE after tourniquet release could occur during arthroscopic knee surgery and that epidural anesthesia may increase the fibrinolysis of a tourniquet induced thrombus. |
Key Words:
d-dimer; epidural anesthesia; pneumatic tourniquet; thromboembolism |
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