Tech & Biz

Bar Codes: Protecting You from Surgical Sponges

by Jordan Yerman | December 9, 2007 at 09:31 am

602 views | 10 Recommendations | 3 comments

Tools left inside your body after surgery? No, thank you. Rather than using tool leashes like theatre lighting crews use, Loyola University Medical Center has turned to high-tech:

Loyola University Medical Center is utilizing a new technology that is helping its surgical teams keep track of all sponges used during a surgical procedure. Each sponge has a unique bar code affixed to it that is scanned by a high-tech device to obtain a count.

By "high-tech device", they probably mean "barcode scanner".

I had no idea the problem was quite so widespread... I mean, I've never had a mechanic leave a wrench in my crankcase, or a nut rattling around in the carburetor.

Every year, in the United States about 1,500 people have surgical objects accidentally left inside them after surgery, according to medical studies.

About two-thirds of the surgical objects left behind are sponges, which can lead to pain, infection, bowel obstructions, problems in healing, longer hospital stays, additional surgeries and in rare cases, death.

Before a procedure begins, the identification number of the patient and the badge of the surgical team member maintaining the count are scanned into the counter. When a sponge is removed from a patient, it is scanned back into the system. A surgical procedure cannot end until all sponges are accounted for."

I better type fast, as no doubt Edmund Jenks read this, too, and it's right up his alley!

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cynthia yoo

at 11:18 on December 9th, 2007

yikes~~1500 per year? crazy! i prefer to watch my sponge(bob) on TV, not on an x-ray scanner, thank you v. much

Zlender

at 00:24 on December 10th, 2007

Can someone explain to me how can you forget something in patients body? Its not like there is room to spare in there.

Karen Hatter

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 06:12 on December 10th, 2007

Ookaaay.... sounds like a plan. It seems it will keep the sponges from being sewn into the patient AND it allows the device to be used to scan the patient since sponges 0018647 and 2953742 aren't showing up on the retrieved list! Great find, Jordan!