Manual to Prevent Leaving Instruments and Sponges Inside the Patient after Surgery

Abstract

  Based on our experience of two cases of sponges left inside the patient after surgery, the manual to prevent leaving instruments and sponges inside the patient has been revised. Sponges, towels, and all other materials placed in the operation field must contain a radio-opaque marker and only X ray-detectable items shall be placed in the surgical wound. An inventory of instruments and sponges shall be recorded in the clinical chart. It has been decided that a radiograph of every patient who undergoes an open-cavity operation must be taken.