A Study Investigating Ways to Make Local Anaesthetic Hand Surgery Less Painful - Reducing Tourniquet Associated Pain
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2012-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Hand surgery requires a reduced blood flow to the hand during the operation, which is
achieved using a tourniquet (tightly inflated circumferential cuff) around the upper arm.
However this tourniquet is painful. This study investigates whether breathing oxygen can
reduce the pain associated with the tourniquet to both improve patient experience and
potentially to allow longer operations to be completed under a local anaesthetic (rather than
a general anaesthetic, where the patient is put to sleep, which is more costly, time
consuming and risky for the patient).