A team of Japanese surgeons discovered two surgical sponges left inside a patient’s abdomen. The patient, a woman, told the doctors that she had two cesarean sections, one nine years ago and the other one six years ago. Following the surgery, the woman’s symptoms ceased, being released from the hospital five days after her operation.
Surgical Sponges – The Most Common Object Left Behind after An Operation
According to a 2017 report from OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development), in approximately 9.3 times out of 10,000, a surgical object is left behind in the human body, the most common being surgical sponges followed by blades and parts of broken probes.
Although in most cases the objects can be safely retrieved from the patient, in others can induce infection and even death, as Dr. Takeshi Kondo of the Chiba University Hospital noted.
Dr. Kondo was one of the physicians attending the 42-year-old woman who recently went to the Chiba University Hospital with severe abdominal bloating. The patient told the doctors that following her latest cesarean section, which was performed six years ago, she experienced these symptoms, but never this intense.
A CT scan revealed that the woman had a gossypiboma in her abdominal cavity – a tumor-like formation produced by foreign bodies which were forgotten inside the patient after surgery.
Kondo described the two objects inside the woman’s abdomen as two masses with a stringy structure. Following the surgery, Kondo and her team managed to extract the masses safely. Soon after the operation was completed, the woman’s symptoms ceased, and she was released from the hospital five days later.
The woman told the reporters that after having her surgery in Japan, she went back to the States in order to confront the surgeon who performed both C-Section. However, the doctor refuted her claims, telling the woman that she did not have enough evidence to support a botched operation.
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