NEWPORT NEWS – Every year, an estimated 1,500 people undergo surgery and have gauze left inside of them. A new study shows it happens more often in Cesarean sections than any other surgery.
Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News is now using technology that will not allow surgeons to sew up a patient if there’s anything foreign left inside the body. It’s called an RF Assure detection system.
Dr. Bill Irvin, an obstetrical surgeon, says this new machine is essential. One of his top surgical tools is a laparotomy pad and while it is useful, the doctor says it can be a nightmare.
“We can wrap it around certain organs and move the organs out of the way to expose an area that we’re operating,” explained Dr. Irvin. “As they absorb blood, they get very compact and small and they start to look like the tissue of the patient we’re operating on.”
Irvin says it could cause severe infections inside the patient. It can actually cause erosions in organ systems such as the bowel.
With the use of radio frequency, the new machine actually scans to see if there’s any gauze left inside after an operation. As a safe measure, staff at Riverside will still count the pads at the beginning of surgery.
Riverside got the equipment for free from the makers of the machine, RF Surgical; however it has to pay $60,000 a year for supplies to use it.
Officials there believe it is cost-effective compared to the million dollar lawsuits that patients could file.
