Gangrene Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Gangrene, including details on smoking, treatment, causes, amputation, necrosis.

Forgotten digital tourniquet: salvage of an ischaemic finger by application of medicinal leeches.

Durrant C, Townley WA, Ramkumar S, Khoo CT

Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, Berkshire, UK. cdextra@dsl.pipex.com

Individual finger tourniquets are appropriate to the management of a wide range of conditions presenting to an accident and emergency department. They are simpler and more comfortable to use than upper arm pneumatic tourniquets and commercially available digital tourniquets are not readily available in the accident and emergency unit. However, if a finger tourniquet is overlooked, ischaemia of the digit results, and gangrene may follow if the problem is not defused early enough, leading to potential disaster. We present one case where a digit was salvaged after 4 days of tourniquet application, using medicinal leeches.

Published 27 September 2006 in Ann R Coll Surg Engl, 88(5): 462-4.
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