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Tourniquet Test

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Synonyms

Acute ischemia test; Forearm ischemia procedure; Forearm occlusion pain; Ischemic pain; Ischemic test; Submaximum effort tourniquet technique; Tourniquet ischemia

Definition

Ischemic pain is elicited by having the subject squeeze a handspring exercises 20 times after a tourniquet is inflated around his upper arm. The quality of sensation is dull-aching or stinging muscular pain, which closely resembles most types of pathologic pain, but increases progressively after cessation of squeezing. Test performance is measured in terms of elapsed time between cessation of squeezing and report of slight (threshold) and unbearable (tolerance) pain. Muscular pain from ischemic contractions, which is due to transient stimulation of peripheral nociceptors (LaMotte and Campbell 1978), is based on the algogenic actions of protons (Issberner et al. 1996). The muscle pain is not specific since skin, periosteum, and other tissues contribute to the overall pain perception. In addition, the...

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Correspondence to Giancarlo Carli .

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Carli, G. (2013). Tourniquet Test. In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_4539

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