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| Surgical Tools |
Going into the hospital, changing into a gown,
and lying down as you’re being escorted through the doors of the operating room
can be a nerve-wracking experience all on its own. Although surgery comes with
a risk, it seems more complications arise post-surgery from the hands of no
other than the surgeon herself. Doctors have coined the term as “retained
surgical items” (RSI).
Every year, 1,500 patients in the U.S. have
surgical objects accidentally left inside them after surgery, according to The
Joint Commission, an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits
and certifies more than 20,500 health care organizations and programs in the
country. Most of the RSI are sponges used to control patient bleeding during
long operations. RSI can lead to pain, infections, and other medical
complications.
The implementation of electronic scanners and
sponge tracking systems has been promoted for use in order to account for all
items after surgery. For example, doctors and nurses in the Indiana University
Health system would use sponge counts to keep track of the gauzy pads during
surgery. However, out of the 34,000 surgeries performed each year at IU Health’s
three-hospital campus in Indianapolis, they would get one or two cases in which
the sponges were left in a patient.
IU Health now uses tracking technology, which
costs about $275,000 a year, including the annual cost of the tagged sponges
which are about $8 per surgery, USA Today reported. IU hospitals have
not had a single lost-sponge case in five years since the use of the tracking
technology. This has led to a lot of savings and reduced medical costs.
Click “View Gallery” to view the case reports of
patients whose lives were in jeopardy when it came to surgery and surgical
tools.
Source
from www.medicaldaily.com/not-so-smooth-operator-7-surgical-tools-accidentally-left-behind-after-surgery-315298
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