Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Left Behind: The Fight To Prevent Retained Surgical Bodies

October 12, 2018 By Daniel Seeger

Earlier this year, a report in The New England Journal of Medicine prompted stories in the general press ringing with alarm.

Two physicians at a hospital in Japan recounted treatment of a 42-year-woman who complained of lower abdominal bloating, which she said had been ongoing for three years. The medical exam found evidence of nontender masses on her iliac fossae, and subsequent radiographs showed hyperdense lesions.

The patient underwent a laparotomy. Two masses were removed. When the masses were cut open, the surgeons found gauze inside.

The patient had undergone cesarean sections on two separate occasions several years earlier, leading to speculation that the sponges were left behind during one of those procedures. Given the timetable laid out in the report, the sponges existed inside her for at least three years before symptoms arose.

The case represents a nightmare scenario for patients and surgeons, but it’s also a shockingly common occurrence. Although termed a never event — those situations the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) insist should never happen to a patient — the most dependable estimate puts the number of surgical instruments left inside of patients annually at 6,000. Of those, roughly 70 percent are surgical sponges.

There are multiple approaches to solving the problem of retained surgical bodies, all part of the continuing movement to codify cultures of safety in healthcare facilities. Checklists and rigorous counts are often emphasized in surgical protocols.

Sponges are trickier to inventory than other items in the OR. For one thing, there are simply a lot of them. A major surgery can utilize about 100 sponges.

In those quantities, even the most determined efforts at keeping count can be thwarted.

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, surgeon and author of influential book The Checklist Manifesto, once used a familiar task from a game room to illustrate the difficulty.

“And if you’ve ever counted a deck of cards and tried to confirm whether you have 52 cards, you know that you will miscount a known number of times,” Gawande told CNN in a discussion of the dangers of retained surgical bodies.

In addition to the threat to patient safety, retained surgical bodies can be costly to hospitals. Facilities that made the mistake can be hit with considerable fines levied by regulatory agencies and also face malpractice lawsuits that result in jury awards running to six figures or more.

The checklist approach that Gawande helped popularize is a useful countermeasure, but healthcare professionals are increasingly looking to technology to provide additional protections. As barcoding and other automated processes are introduced as part of the supply chain management side of hospital operations, it only makes sense to incorporate related tracking technology right into the OR space.

High-tech measures can have a daunting price tag, but some protections — for patients and practitioners — are investments against outcomes that are far costlier.

Related Articles Read More >

Min-Vasive Medtech: Live interviews and audience Q&As with minimally invasive engineers from Edwards Lifesciences, Jupiter Endo and Compremium
This is a screenshot of the remote robotic surgery technical guidelines appearing in the World Journal of Surgery.
New technical guidelines set to advance remote robotic surgery
An illustration of Embolization Inc.'s Nitinol Enhanced Device (NED).
This nitinol vascular embolization device has another shape memory material up its sleeve
A photo of nitinol, a nickel-titanium alloy used for medical devices such as stents, heart valves, catheters and orthopedics.
What is nitinol and where is it used?
“mdo
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest medical device business news, application and technology trends.

DeviceTalks Weekly

See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Supplies and Components Index
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • MedTech Resources
    • Medtech Events in 2025
    • The 2024 Medtech Big 100
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Educational Assets
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Video
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Women in Medtech
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe