Technology to detect strange objects in patients

Surgeons can use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to detect forgotten cotton swabs in the patient's body.

Group of doctors using RFID tags (Photo: pravda)

Researchers at Stanford Medical School, UK, experimented by deliberately forgetting RFID tagging pads in eight patients who operated the abdominal or pelvic area.

The doctors and nurses then glide back and forth across the patient's body with an identification device. This device will make a sound when a cotton swab is detected.

The results showed that every time the device also detected the correct piece of RFID tag attached. However, researchers say the device may still be wrong if it is waving too far from the body or not scanning the right part of the body.

Alex Macario, the lead anesthesiologist, said the future will see a combination of identification cards with other techniques such as counting tools and cotton swabs before and after surgery.

Previous research found health workers neglecting strange objects, mostly cotton swabs, in the patient's body for every 1 in 10,000 surgeries, causing even death complications.

RFID identification cards are commonly used to track luggage and prevent counterfeiting currencies or prevent theft.

MT