BACKGROUND: More than 40 million surgeries are performed in the United States each year. Of those, 3,000 patients will come out of the surgery with something other than what they went in for. Everything from surgical instruments to sponges are accidentally left in the patient because they are undetected. Alex Macario, M. D., from the Stanford School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif., explains: “It’s hard to believe that something as big as a sponge or even a surgical instrument would be left in. But because of the chaos of the operating room and the complexity of the surgery, sometimes objects are left in inadvertently.”
DETECTION: Because it is rare for an instrument to be left inside patients, figuring out whether post surgery problems are associated with the surgery itself or if it is something else can be difficult. There are a few signs patients can watch out for:
NEW TECHNOLOGY: Scientists are looking for new ways to reduce the number of instruments left inside patients. Dr. Macario and his team attached a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip to instruments and sponges used in the abdominal or pelvic surgeries of eight patients at Stanford University School of Medicine. After surgery, the doctors waved the RFID wand device over the patients. In fewer then three seconds, doctors were able to detect and remove the instruments and sponges. It proved to be effective 100-percent of the time. The RFID chips are similar to the technology implanted in pets to trace them, as well as devices used to track cars going through toll booths.
NEXT STEP: Technology, such as sponges with barcodes and sponges that are able to be detected by metal detectors, is currently being tested in hopes of improving detection of hidden instruments left in the body. Dr. Macario and his team are looking at ways to improve their radio frequency device, including installing a scanning device around the operating door allowing doctors to know whether or not something was left behind. “What we’re interested in now is how to make it more foolproof so that it’s not dependent on the personnel in the operating room to do the scan correctly every time on every patient,” Dr. Macario says.
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