An earlier study(Kiely et al. 2001) about the clamping drainage was reported in 2001 and it
claimed that there was no significant difference between the clamping and non-clamping
drainage groups in volume of drained blood, transfusion requirements, knee motion or
wound status. However, several following studies(Shen et al. 2005; Tsumara et al. 2006;
Raleigh et al. 2007; Stucinskas et al. 2008) showed that the drained volume was decreased by
temporarily clamping the drain tubes. The other one(Eum et al. 2006) involving the 1-hour
clamping method demonstrated a significant decrease in the drained volume in the
clamping group during the postoperative 24 hours, but not 48 hours. The total drained
blood volume ranged from 297 to 807 ml in the clamping group and 586 to 970 ml in the
non-clamping group in the literature.
, pharmacological intervention, or other additional management have been
reported to achieve this goal. The drain clamping method, if it is effective, is a much
easier way to reduce blood loss compared to these interventions. The initial clamping
provides a temporary tamponade effect, as well as the delayed release prevents
hematoma formation.