Philippine Orthopedic Center Research Board
Wide Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet And Local Anesthiesia with Tourniquet in Surgical Carpal Tunnel Release in the Philippine Orthopedic Center: A Double Blinded Control Trial
Joshua Joseph F. Nocom, MD., Ian Jason C. Magtoto, MD
Podium Presentation: POC Inter –Departmental Research Contest: Philippine Orthopedic Center, December 14, 2023
1st place, Podium Presentation 1st place, Poster Presentation 28th Resident’s Research Forum: Philippine Orthopedic Center, February 10, 2023
Completed and Presented as Requirement for Research, February 2023
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
Wide Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet (WALANT) is an anesthetic technique which uses a prepared mixture of epinephrine and lidocaine for both anesthesia and hemostasis.
OBJECTIVES
This study aims to determine if there is a significant difference between WALANT and Local Anesthesia with Tourniquet (LAWT) for patients undergoing carpal tunnel release in terms of operative time, intraoperative blood loss, and intra and post- operative pain.
METHODOLOGY
Patients (n=47) indicated for open carpal tunnel release were randomly assigned to receive two different anesthetic techniques, particularly WALANT and LAWT. Operative time, intraoperative blood loss, Intra-, and post- operative pain data were recorded, and analyzed accordingly.
RESULTS
Mean age of all participants was 40.87 years old. In general, results illustrated that the mean operative time was 13.66 minutes (SD=3.25), the mean blood loss was 2.96 grams (SD=1.70), the mean intra-operative pain score was 3 (IQR=2.50), and the median post-operative pain score was 2 (IQR=1.50). Analyses of these outcomes showed that the mean operative time (14.33±3.29 vs. 13.01±3.13, p=0.157) and mean blood loss (3.28±1.92 vs. 2.65±1.41, p=0.394) were slightly higher in Group 1 (WALANT) than in Group 2 (LAWT); These findings were found to be statistically not significant.
CONCLUSION
Over-all, there was no significant difference between LAWT (Local Anesthesia with Tourniquet) and WALANT (Wide Awake Local Anesthesia No Tourniquet) techniques when it comes to operative time, intraoperative blood loss and intra- and post- operative pain scores.