1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an identification and accountability system for surgical sponges and more particularly to an identification and accountability system for surgical sponges, which utilizes machine-readable information to identify and account for surgical sponges.
2. Description of the Related Art
Surgical sponges are commonly used during surgical procedures to absorb body fluids, mostly blood, of the patient both inside the incision and around the site of surgery. Sponges of this nature are usually made of an open ended absorbic fabric, such as woven cotton. When used, surgical sponges become saturated with blood, alter in size and shape and therefore become hard to distinguish from body tissue and each other. For this reason surgical sponges are hard to identify and account for both during and after a surgical procedure. This problem becomes magnified in larger surgical procedures where there are a large number of sponges used.
Before any particular surgical procedure all surgical items must be meticulously counted. After the procedure all items used in that particular surgery must be identified and accounted for. Surgical sponges are a difficult item to account for before, during and especially after a surgical procedure. The current method of identification and accountability relies on medical personnel to count these items by hand, relying on human visual detection and counting ability to differentiate one sponge from another and account for all the sponges, leaving this method open to a degree of human error. If a sponge count taken during or after a surgical procedure does not match a sponge count taken during or after the same procedure, the sponges are impregnated with an x-ray detectable element so that the patient can be x-rayed to see if the missing sponge or sponges are inside the patient and where.
The current system of accountability and identification for surgical sponges has proven itself unreliable and inefficient. Not only does the large amount of time involved to differentiate the sponges from one another and account for them all lead to large costs, but also the unreliable nature of the method leads to an alarming number of miscounted sponges resulting in retained surgical sponges inside the patient. These unfortunate incidents adversely affect not only the health of the patient, but also prove costly to the nurses, technicians, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies involved.
Past attempts have been made to increase the chances of accurate visual counting of surgical sponges. U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,694 addressed this problem by including, in the sponge, an elongated visually detectable element at a visible location on the sponge comprising a pair of elongated twisted strands. One of the strands contrasts with the color of the sponge, and the other with the color of blood. This is done to facilitate visual detection of the sponge whether it is dry or soaked with blood. This is done to facilitate visual detection of the sponge and counting ability and is therefore subject to a high degree of human error. There is no attempt to differentiate one individual sponge from another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,601 attempts to solve the problem of medical item detection. It describes a method by which surgical implants, instruments, sponges, implantable devices and indwelling therapeutic devices and materials may be detected within the human body, or other area of interest, by incorporating or adding a radio frequency transponder. Non-linear mixing of two frequencies in a radio transponder is used. This transponder may be a small film deposition of ferrite material exhibiting gyro-magnetic resonance at selected frequencies or a solid state device. When the transponders are incorporated in the items, the detection of the transponder is equivalent to the detection of the implant.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,642 also attempts to address the issue of medical item accountability. The invention is an "Integrator Collector" containing a time-correlated digital receiver for measuring, displaying and recording fluid loss from surgery and for maintaining, displaying and recording a count of secured items, such as needles and sponges by means of an electronic beam, which upon activation by a surgical sponge, triggers the automatic conversion of the weight of the items into cubic centimeters of blood loss.
The '642 patent calls for the placement of indicia on external packaging of the containers holding the surgical sponges as a means to count the number of sponges before a surgical procedure, but makes no attempt to include this indicia on the individual sponges themselves. No attempt is made to differentiate one individual sponge from the next by means of indicia.