Efficacy of forearm versus upper arm tourniquet for local anaesthetic surgery of the hand

A prospective study was undertaken to compare the use of forearm and upper arm tourniquets for local anaesthetic procedures on the hand. One hundred c onsecutive patients with an upper arm tourniquet were compared with a furth er consecutive 100 patients in whom a forearm tourniquet was used. The tour niquet time was always less than 20 minutes and the scoring of perceived pa in was not significantly different in the two groups. Use of a forearm tour niquet was well tolerated and was not associated with an increase in compli cations.