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American Morning

House Call: Surgical Tools Left Inside 1,500 Patients Each Year

Aired January 16, 2003 - 07:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You might well wonder, how could it happen? There is a report that says that every year, surgical tools are left inside 1,500 patients.
Making a "House Call" from Atlanta, a guy that does a lot of surgery himself, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Are you guilty of this? Have you ever done that to one of your patients?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I knew you were going to ask me that, and, no.

ZAHN: Well, why wouldn't I?

GUPTA: The first question, right. No, I haven't done it, but I certainly have heard about it, Paula, and it is exceedingly rare. Let me just give you some of the numbers; 1,500 you mentioned. That's in comparison to about 28 million operations done each year. No one is saying these numbers, the 1,500 number, is acceptable, but certainly it's a small percentage.

What happens typically is not -- it's not happening because of surgeons' fatigue, which was what most of the researchers thought before they did this study, but typically happens more in the cases of emergency operations. You can see the pictures there -- that's a pretty obvious one. Someone left a large surgical tool in the chest cavity -- in the abdominal cavity there.

What happens typically in emergency situations and in situations where you have intra-operative complications, they tend to see these numbers increase by about nine times. Patients who are overweight or obese, just simply because they have more room for possible tools, such as sponges, clamps. The instrument that you saw in that picture just a second ago could possibly get lost in there.

Now, typically what happens, Paula, is sort of interesting. At the end of a case, the numbers are counted. All of the instruments are counted, all of the sponges are counted as well, so that the same number that was given should be the same number that was received back to the nurses. And those sponges are also impregnated with a little radiographic marker, so if one of the sponges is missing, an x-ray can be taken to see if that sponge is actually still in the body somewhere.

Obviously, it doesn't always work. The system doesn't always work; 1,500 patients or so have some device left in them each year.

Also, Paula, really quick. There's a news conference that's going...

ZAHN: I don't understand. What? Are you saying people can't count, and they don't realize until after the fact that they don't take the correct measurements? Or -- I don't really understand how this happens.

GUPTA: Well, I think people can count, Paula. I think that perhaps sometimes the numbers are miscounted or the instruments are -- somebody thought that they had counted it, and in fact it wasn't counted. A sponge was actually left on the floor -- or they thought it was left on the floor; in fact, it was in the patient's body. Something like that can happen.

Again, it's very rare. I've heard of it happening once, but it obviously can happen.

ZAHN: Well, we all have members of our family. I know my mother, myself, a couple of guys here in the crew were talking about also being subjected. It's really scary, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Absolutely, it is scary. And no one is saying it's acceptable, and people need to do a good job about making sure those things are out of the body. But it does happen, and hopefully those numbers will continue to go down as people learn more about it.

ZAHN: Boy, thanks, Sanjay.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Year>


Aired January 16, 2003 - 07:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You might well wonder, how could it happen? There is a report that says that every year, surgical tools are left inside 1,500 patients.
Making a "House Call" from Atlanta, a guy that does a lot of surgery himself, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Are you guilty of this? Have you ever done that to one of your patients?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I knew you were going to ask me that, and, no.

ZAHN: Well, why wouldn't I?

GUPTA: The first question, right. No, I haven't done it, but I certainly have heard about it, Paula, and it is exceedingly rare. Let me just give you some of the numbers; 1,500 you mentioned. That's in comparison to about 28 million operations done each year. No one is saying these numbers, the 1,500 number, is acceptable, but certainly it's a small percentage.

What happens typically is not -- it's not happening because of surgeons' fatigue, which was what most of the researchers thought before they did this study, but typically happens more in the cases of emergency operations. You can see the pictures there -- that's a pretty obvious one. Someone left a large surgical tool in the chest cavity -- in the abdominal cavity there.

What happens typically in emergency situations and in situations where you have intra-operative complications, they tend to see these numbers increase by about nine times. Patients who are overweight or obese, just simply because they have more room for possible tools, such as sponges, clamps. The instrument that you saw in that picture just a second ago could possibly get lost in there.

Now, typically what happens, Paula, is sort of interesting. At the end of a case, the numbers are counted. All of the instruments are counted, all of the sponges are counted as well, so that the same number that was given should be the same number that was received back to the nurses. And those sponges are also impregnated with a little radiographic marker, so if one of the sponges is missing, an x-ray can be taken to see if that sponge is actually still in the body somewhere.

Obviously, it doesn't always work. The system doesn't always work; 1,500 patients or so have some device left in them each year.

Also, Paula, really quick. There's a news conference that's going...

ZAHN: I don't understand. What? Are you saying people can't count, and they don't realize until after the fact that they don't take the correct measurements? Or -- I don't really understand how this happens.

GUPTA: Well, I think people can count, Paula. I think that perhaps sometimes the numbers are miscounted or the instruments are -- somebody thought that they had counted it, and in fact it wasn't counted. A sponge was actually left on the floor -- or they thought it was left on the floor; in fact, it was in the patient's body. Something like that can happen.

Again, it's very rare. I've heard of it happening once, but it obviously can happen.

ZAHN: Well, we all have members of our family. I know my mother, myself, a couple of guys here in the crew were talking about also being subjected. It's really scary, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Absolutely, it is scary. And no one is saying it's acceptable, and people need to do a good job about making sure those things are out of the body. But it does happen, and hopefully those numbers will continue to go down as people learn more about it.

ZAHN: Boy, thanks, Sanjay.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




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