Asymptomatic retained surgical gauze towel diagnosed 32 years after nephrectomy


Cevik I., DİLLİOĞLUGİL Ö., Ozveri H., Akdas A.

INTERNATIONAL UROLOGY AND NEPHROLOGY, vol.40, no.4, pp.885-888, 2008 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 40 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2008
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s11255-008-9383-2
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL UROLOGY AND NEPHROLOGY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.885-888
  • Keywords: Retained gauze, Nephrectomy, Complication, GOSSYPIBOMA, SPONGES, CT
  • Kocaeli University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Retained surgical gauze is a rare but known problem in patients who have medical history of surgery. Suspicion and evaluation of this rare condition is sometimes very difficult for the clinician because retained surgical sponges can be totally asymptomatic or can hide themselves perfectly in the plain abdominal films. For this reason clinican should excersize high rate of suspicion, should not solely depend upon plain films and should consider more sophisticated examinations like ultrasonography (US) or computerized tomography for the appropriate management of these retained sponges. We present here a very unusual and late presentation of surgically retained gauze which gave a false appearance of a kidney with decreased functional activitity in the excretory urography (EU) 32 years after nephrectomy.