A pneumatic tourniquet in surgical applications maintains the minimum pressure necessary to stop blood flow in the limb. This minimum pressure setting is affected by factors like repositioning the limb during the procedure, changes in systolic pressure, and the ratio of cuff width to limb circumference.
These tourniquets are mainly used to occlude blood flow and to obtain a bloodless field during lower limb surgery. Tourniquets also facilitate intravenous regional anesthesia, an alternative to general anesthesia for surgery of the upper or lower limbs.
Three basic components in most tourniquets are: a cuff, a means of inflating the cuff bladder, and a controller. Some controllers also have a timer or an elapsed time meter.
To inflate tourniquet cuffs, several methods are offered.
In the majority of tourniquets, air or nitrogen is delivered from a wall outlet or a tank with a regulator.
Some models use an electric pump to compress ambient air for cuff inflation; these are mainly line powered with backup batteries.
There is a model that uses liquefied tetrafluoroethane from a canister that is discharged into a glass reservoir in the controller. When released, the tetrafluoroethane vaporizes and inflates the cuff. Here, the tourniquet prevents infused local anesthetic from flowing out of the limb, as well as provides a bloodless operating field.
Typically, a variety of single and dual bladder tourniquet cuffs will be needed.
Both reusable and disposable tourniquet cuffs are available, but a reusable cuff is more cost-effective because of its long life.
Facilities should consider whether a control valve is included with the controller or whether they must purchase it separately, and also the cost of accessories such as tubing and connectors for rotating tourniquets and DVT tourniquets.

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