The Risks of Surgical Instrument Retention

There’s a risk that almost nobody thinks about when they enter the hospital for a surgical procedure. However, this surprisingly common occurrence can change your life in a significant way if it does happen to you. We’re talking about a surgeon or medical professional leaving a surgical item inside your body following a procedure. By most estimates, surgical instrument retention occurs in every 5,000 to 9,000 surgeries that take place in the United States each year.

Any medical malpractice lawyer who has helped clients and families impacted by instrument retention can tell you that the effects can be catastrophic. For victims of this type of medical malpractice, having a foreign object left in the body can create a myriad of chronic and acute health problems that can threaten your quality of living, your mental health, and your life. Here’s everything that you need to know if you believe you’ve been a victim of surgical instrument retention following a procedure.

What Are the Most Common Surgical Instruments Left in Patients?

Up to 70% of foreign objects left inside patients following surgical procedures are surgical sponges. However, it can be surprising to learn that larger and more rigid tools are also left inside patients quite frequently. The other 30% of surgical instrument retention occurrences involve surgical tools like scalpels, clamps, and needles.

What Are the Consequences of Surgical Instrument Retention?

Patients who suffer the consequences of surgical instrument retention often face long, hard roads back to health. For some, pre-surgery quality of life and health are never fully restored. Victims of this form of medical malpractice can face a variety of physical, emotional, and monetary consequences.

Depending on things like the size and location of the object left behind, symptoms can show up anywhere from a few hours following surgery to a few years in the future. The most common health consequence for patients who are victims of surgical instrument retention is severe infection. It can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint a retained surgical instrument as the cause of the infection because a medical team may try to explain it away as the body struggling to heal. An infection can quickly escalate to life-threatening organ preformation or sepsis.

For patients who have a slower reaction, there may be years of pain and suffering. Objects like sponges or tubing that get left behind may cause scar tissue to develop slowly over time. This can lead to months or years of fevers, immune responses, exhaustion, and general decline. Over time, these objects can cause internal bleeding, bowel obstructions, nutrient deficiencies, and severe organ damage. Larger and sharper objects can puncture organs and tissue to cause severe bleeding and infections.

Some patients simply watch their health decline without explanation for years. They may assume that they have a chronic health issue or suffer from poor healing because they aren’t aware that a foreign object inside their body is wearing down their immune system day by day. Chronic pain is a common symptom for people who don’t have acute infections soon after surgery. They may live with chronic inflammation that impacts their mood or ability to work. In some cases, masses and abscesses that grow because of embedded objects actually mimic tumors. It is only when they seek treatment for a suspected growth that a patient learns an object has been festering inside their body for years undetected.

The average victim of surgical instrument retention is subject to countless diagnostic tests to figure out the root cause of their symptoms. They may even undergo unnecessary treatments if the true cause of their symptoms is not caught. Ultimately, most patients who are victims of surgical instrument retention will need to undergo expensive and risky surgery to finally locate and extract the retained object.

What Increases Your Risk for Becoming a Victim of Surgical Instrument Retention?

Surgical instrument retention can happen to anyone. However, certain scenarios in the operating room can increase the likelihood that an error will be made. In all cases, an instrument being left inside a patient’s body is a systematic failure caused by the medical personnel participating in the operation. Here are some scenarios where your odds of being a malpractice victim go up:

Emergency Surgery: If you are undergoing an unplanned surgery due to an emergency, the urgency of the situation can put you at greater risk for instrument retention.
Change of Plans: Unexpected factors that cause your surgical team to divert from the original plan can make it more likely that checklist items can be overlooked.
Bad Protocol: A surgical team’s ineffective protocols can make safety measures designed to account for all materials used during surgery unreliable.
Your Weight: Yes, a patient’s BMI (body mass index) can actually put them at greater risk for surgical instrument retention. Of course, this in no way reduces the liability of the surgical team responsible for the malpractice error. For obese patients or patients with higher amounts of adipose tissue, maintaining visual tracking of smaller instruments during surgery can be more challenging.

Why Surgical Instrument Retention Is 100% Medical Malpractice

Don’t accept that a sponge or surgical instrument being left inside a patient is something that “just happens” from time to time. Healthcare governing and regulatory bodies define surgical instrument retention as a “never” event. This refers to completely preventable medical errors that would never have occurred if all proper safety and compliance protocols were followed. A never event is always considered to be a system failure on the part of the surgical team and hospital. Contributing factors like emergency situations, changes of plans during surgery, or a patient’s weight do not excuse the healthcare providers from liability. If you were harmed by an event like this, get the representation after medical malpractice you need by contacting a lawyer today.