A surgical tourniquet cuff for limiting usage to improve safety, comprises: an inflatable portion having a length sufficient for encircling a patient's limb at a desired location; cuff connector means communicating pneumatically with the inflatable portion and adapted near an end for connecting to a tourniquet instrument to establish a releasable pneumatic connection; and a cuff usage register located at a predetermined distance from the end of the cuff connector means and adapted for containing a usage amount record indicative of an amount of a predetermined usage of the cuff. The cuff usage register may further contain a usage limit record indicative of a predetermined limit of the predetermined usage of the cuff. The cuff usage register may be further adapted for enabling the cuff usage record and the usage limit record to be read by a tourniquet instrument that is pneumatically connected to the inflatable portion through the cuff connector means.