RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Effect of Air Tourniquet on Interleukin-6 Levels in Total Knee Arthroplasty
Kenji Tsunoda, Motoki Sonohata*, Hajime Kugisaki, Shinsuke Someya, Hidefumi Honke, Mitsunori Komine, Masataka Izumi, Shuya Ide, Masaaki Mawatari
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 11
First Page: 20
Last Page: 28
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-11-20
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001711010020
Article History:
Received Date: 17/09/2016Revision Received Date: 17/11/2016
Acceptance Date: 02/12/2016
Electronic publication date: 30/01/2017
Collection year: 2017

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
Air tourniquet-induced skeletal muscle injury increases the concentrations of some cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) in plasma. However, the effect of an air tourniquet on the IL-6 concentrations after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is unclear. We therefore investigated the impact of tourniquet-induced ischemia and reperfusion injury in TKA using the IL-6 level as an index.
Methods:
Ten patients with primary knee osteoarthrosis who underwent unilateral TKA without an air tourniquet were recruited (Non-tourniquet group). We also selected 10 age- and sex-matched control patients who underwent unilateral TKA with an air tourniquet (Tourniquet group). Venous blood samples were obtained at 3 points; before surgery, 24 h after surgery, and 7 days after surgery.
The following factors were compared between the two groups; IL-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), the mean white blood cell (WBC) counts, and the maximum daily body temperatures.
Results:
The IL-6 level at 24 h after surgery was significantly higher than that at any other point (p<0.01). No significant differences were observed in the WBC count, the body temperature, or the CRP, CPK, or IL-6 levels of the two groups at any of the time points.
Conclusion:
The effect of ischemia and reperfusion due to the use of an air tourniquet on increasing the IL-6 level was much smaller than that induced by surgical stress in TKA.