Use of the tourniquet during surgery in patients with sickle cell hemoglobinopathies.

Twenty-one patients carrying the sickle cell gene underwent 29 operative procedures using tourniquet-induced ischemia. No statistically increased incidence of complications occurred in the sickle cell group when compared with a control group of black patients who did not have the sickle cell trait, but who underwent similar operative procedures. There was no obvious contraindication to the use of the tourniquet in patients carrying the sickle cell gene.