A Remedy for Sponges and Other Instruments Left in Body After Operation
Surgical staff leave behind a sponge or scalpel in one in 10,000 operations. By leave behind, we mean that the sponge or scalpel is left in the patient after the surgery!!!
Can new technology help?
A recent study suggests that radio tag technology may help to detect foreign items left in a patient after surgery. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine tested sponges embedded with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that were left in eight patients having abdominal or pelvic surgery.
Doctors and nurses then waved a detector wand over the patients, which beeped when it found the sponges or foreign bodies.
The detector wand worked every time in about 3 seconds with no false finds (beeping when nothing was there). While there still may be errors if people wave the wand too far away from the body, or don't scan the correct part of the body, this technology is promising.