Total knee replacement under tourniquet control: A prospective study of the peripheral arterial vasculature using colour-assisted duplex ultrasonography.

Background And Purpose: A tourniquet may potentiate rare and devastating arterial complications after total knee replacement (TKR) in patients with peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Most prior studies that evaluated peripheral arterial blood flow primarily used the ankle-brachial index (ABI).

Methods: We assessed the prevalence and risk factors for PVD in a cohort undergoing TKR.