Radio-frequency identification of surgical sponges in the abdominal cavity of pigs

Julio Cesar Wiederkehr; Ricardo R Gama; Henrique A Wiederkehr; Kleber Stelmasuk; Caroline A Carvalho; Barbara A Wiederkehr

doi:10.1016/j.amsu.2014.03.002

Radio-frequency identification of surgical sponges in the abdominal cavity of pigs

Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2014 Mar 21;3(2):31-3. doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2014.03.002. eCollection 2014 Jun.

Authors

Julio Cesar Wiederkehr¹, Ricardo R Gama², Henrique A Wiederkehr³, Kleber Stelmasuk³, Caroline A Carvalho³, Barbara A Wiederkehr³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
² Department of Experimental Surgery, Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil ; Department of Oncoloy, Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
³ Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.

Abstract

Background: Counting the sponges is an important step in surgical procedures. A miscount may impact the patient's health, and it also has legal implications for the surgeon. This is an experimental study evaluating radio-frequency technology used in the perioperative period to identify surgical sponges left in the peritoneal cavity of swine.

Methods: Radio-frequency labeled-disc identification tags were sewn into 40 surgical towels. Twenty labels had the ability to emit radio-frequency waves, and 20 labels were inert to radio-frequency identification. Twenty adult pigs that underwent laparotomy and randomly received two surgical sponges were scanned by a radio-frequency identification antenna.

Results: This method presented a positive predictive value of 100% and 100% specificity and sensitivity, as all of the tagged surgical sponges were detected.

Conclusion: Radio-frequency identification has been proved to be a useful method for the identification of surgical sponges within the abdominal cavities of swine.

Keywords: RFID; Radio-frequency identification; Surgical sponges; Surgical towels.