Finding What Surgeons Leave Behind -- Research Summary

BACKGROUND: As many as 1 out of 1,000 people who undergo abdominal surgery end up in the recovery room with a foreign object mistakenly left inside them. In the medical community, these forgotten surgical tools are known as “retained foreign objects.” The object most commonly left behind is the surgical sponge which is used to soak up fluids during surgery. Sometimes these forgotten sponges are not discovered for years, if at all. For decades, surgical teams have relied on counting — and recounting — the sponges, needles, blades, retractors, and other items used during operations.

Sponges left inside patients can cause in¬fections and other complications. If left in¬side, the sponge usually has to be removed with another surgery. (Source: Time Magazine)
• 62% of retained surgical items were detected after the surgical count was reported as correct (Cima 2008)
• 76%-88% of all retained surgical objects involve falsely correct sponge counts
• 10%-15% of all retained objects involved having an X-ray
• Sponge counts do not match in 10% of major cases resulting in recounts and verifications
• Mortality related to RFO's ranges from 11% to 35%

LOST AND FOUND: RF Surgical Detection Technology uses a low energy radio frequency signal capable of locating misplaced surgical items prior to wound closure through blood, dense tissue, bone and performs well near metals. Each of the hospital’s sponges, which actually are thin cotton cloths, has a thin, tiny chip embedded in a seam. The chip, which is about the size and shape of a grain of rice, emits a low-frequency AM radio sig¬nal. Doctors or nurses can detect the chip with a wand, a large plastic circle that plugs into a small box, waved over the patient. If there is a sponge still inside the patient, the wand will beep, and the surgeon will know approximately where the sponge is. The wand can detect a sponge up to two feet away. The wand can be used numerous times over 24 hours and then has to be discarded.

The sponge-detection technology is used on several categories of “high-risk” patients: Patients undergoing emergency surgery, obese patients, women giving birth and pa¬tients having surgery on more than one area of the body. (Source: RFsurg.com) MORE ►
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