Medical bandage left in stomach for nearly 10 years

Tam Anh General Hospital has just performed surgery to remove a foreign object, a medical bandage, from a patient's abdomen.

The patient is Mrs. TTL (73 years old, from Nghe An province), who came to the clinic with epigastric pain, abdominal abscess, and partial intestinal obstruction. The patient had a history of laparoscopic appendectomy in 2015 at a major hospital. After surgery, the patient had to be hospitalized about 2-3 times a year for suspected partial intestinal obstruction.

Bandages left in patient's stomach for nearly 10 years

MSc. Dr. Le Van Luong, Department of General Surgery, Tam Anh General Hospital, said that after carefully taking the patient's medical history and performing a clinical examination, the abdomen was found to be soft and not distended, but a mass about 5x5 cm in size, mobile and painful to the touch was felt, so a foreign object was suspected.

Realizing the critical condition, the doctors performed emergency surgery on a 10 x 10 cm abscess located in the middle of the navel, discovering inside the mass a piece of gauze wrapped in loops of small intestine and greater omentum.

The doctors proceeded to remove all the adhesions of the small intestine, colon and abdominal wall from the abscess, remove the foreign objects, clean, and place an abdominal drain. Three days after surgery, the patient's health was stable, no bloating, no abdominal pain, and recovery was good.

According to doctors, surgical bandages are a common item left in patients' bodies during surgery.

Studies around the world show that the rate of missed gauze is 1/3,000 surgeries.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/suc-khoe/bo-quen-bang-gac-y-te-trong-bung-suot-gan-10-nam-20230711173938302.htm