The role of radio frequency detection system embedded surgical sponges in preventing retained surgical sponges: a prospective evaluation in patients undergoing emergency surgery.

Inaba K, Okoye O, Aksoy H, et al. Ann Surg. 2016 Jul 18; [Epub ahead of print].

Retained surgical items are considered a preventable patient safety problem. In this implementation study, investigators used sponges embedded with radio frequency detection (RFD) in emergency surgeries. The RFD system identified sponges that would not have been detected, either because the sponge and instrument count was incorrect or because the count was not performed. These results argue for expanding the use of RFD sponges for emergency surgery.

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