Two surgical sponges were left in a woman's abdomen for at least six

years, according to a new report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The (1) _____ 42-year-old went to a primary care clinic in Japan, saying identify
she had experienced (2) _____ for three years, according to the report, bloat
published Wednesday.
A CT scan of her abdomen showed two masses with strings attached to
them. A (3) ______ procedure called a laparotomy confirmed the surgery
presence of two gauze sponges that were probably left after a cesarean
section. The woman had had two cesarean sections -- one six years earlier
and one nine years earlier -- but it is (4) _____ which one resulted in the clear
retained items. She did not have any other abdominal or pelvic surgeries.
After the removal of the sponges, the patient's symptoms resolved, and
she was (5) ______ five days later. charge
Many - but not all - Japanese hospitals and clinics perform imaging of the
abdomen before closing a surgical wound to (6) _____ that no items are sure
left inside the patient.
In the United States, about a dozen sponges and other surgical
instruments are left inside patients' bodies every day, (7) _____ in result
around 4,500 to 6,000 cases per year, according to the American Society
of Anesthesiologists. There is no federal reporting requirement for
retained or (8) _____ items, making a precise count difficult. forget
Approximately 70% of the items left in patients' bodies are
sponges, according to a 2003 study in the New England Journal of
Medicine. The (9) ______ 30% are surgical instruments such as clamps remain
and retractors. Otherwise known as retained surgical items, these objects
can cause localized pain, (10) ______ and bloating. In some cases, they comfort
can lead to sepsis or death.
"In two-thirds of these cases, there were serious consequences, whether
that's (11) ______ or even death," said Dr. Atul Gawande, a practicing infect
surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital and director of Ariadne Labs
in Boston. "In one case, a small sponge was left inside the brain of a
patient that we studied, and the patient ended up having an infection and
(12) ______ died." ultimate
The mistakes are considered so egregious that they are often referred to
as "never events," a category of surgical errors that includes operating on
the wrong site or on the wrong patient.

By Bel Chavantes/adapted from CNN/February 2018