Gauze sponge

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Gauze sponges are disposable medical supplies commonly used in medicine and surgery. They are ordinarily made of gauze and are used to absorb blood and other fluids as well as clean wounds. When used in surgery, they are called surgical sponges.

Contents

Common sizes include 5 cm × 5 cm (2 in × 2 in), 7.5 cm × 7.5 cm (3 in × 3 in), and 10 cm × 10 cm (4 in × 4 in).

The materials used in the manufacturing of gauze sponges for medical purposes include cotton and non-woven materials. In addition to its many sizes, plys, and fabrics, gauze sponges can also be sterile and non-sterile. The open weave design of gauze sponges assists with the removal of dead tissue from the skin surface as well as vertically wick fluid from the wound onto any secondary dressing to assist with preventing maceration of skin tissue. [1]

Surgical sponges left in body cavities after surgery may cause complications, and are a common sort of surgical error. For this reason, counting them as they are used and removed is a common checklist item. [2] When non-radiopaque sponges are forgotten during surgeries, "Textiloma" or "gossypiboma" are formed. [3] Some sponges include a radiopaque strip so that they can be located by X-ray.

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Debridement Medical removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue

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Skin grafting

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Surgical instrument Tools designed for use during surgery

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Peripherally inserted central catheter Catheter intended for long periods of use

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Asepsis

Asepsis is the state of being free from disease-causing micro-organisms. There are two categories of asepsis: medical and surgical. The modern day notion of asepsis is derived from the older antiseptic techniques, a shift initiated by different individuals in the 19th century who introduced practices such as the sterilizing of surgical tools and the wearing of surgical gloves during operations. The goal of asepsis is to eliminate infection, not to achieve sterility. Ideally, a surgical field is sterile, meaning it is free of all biological contaminants, not just those that can cause disease, putrefaction, or fermentation. Even in an aseptic state, a condition of sterile inflammation may develop. The term often refers to those practices used to promote or induce asepsis in an operative field of surgery or medicine to prevent infection.

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Dressing (medical) Medical term

A dressing is a sterile pad or compress applied to a wound to promote healing and protect the wound from further harm. A dressing is designed to be in direct contact with the wound, as distinguished from a bandage, which is most often used to hold a dressing in place. Many modern dressings are self-adhesive.

Gossypiboma Retained Foreign Object (RFO)

Gossypiboma, textiloma or more broadly Retained Foreign Object (RFO) is the technical term for surgical complications resulting from foreign materials, such as a surgical sponge, accidentally left inside a patient's body.

Gauze Thin translucent fabric with an open weave

Gauze is a thin, translucent fabric with a loose open weave. In technical terms "gauze" is a weave structure in which the weft yarns are arranged in pairs and are crossed before and after each warp yarn keeping the weft firmly in place. This weave structure is used to add stability to fabric, which is important when using fine yarns loosely spaced. However, this weave structure can be used with any weight of yarn, and can be seen in some rustic textiles made from coarse hand-spun plant fiber yarns. Gauze is widely used for medical dressings.

The history of wound care spans from prehistory to modern medicine. Wounds naturally heal by themselves, but hunter-gatherers would have noticed several factors and certain herbal remedies would speed up or assist the process, especially if it was grievous. In ancient history, this was followed by the realisation of the necessity of hygiene and the halting of bleeding, where wound dressing techniques and surgery developed. Eventually the germ theory of disease also assisted in improving wound care.

Veterinary surgery

Veterinary surgery is surgery performed on animals by veterinarians, whereby the procedures fall into three broad categories: orthopaedics, soft tissue surgery, and neurosurgery. Advanced surgical procedures such as joint replacement, fracture repair, stabilization of cranial cruciate ligament deficiency, oncologic (cancer) surgery, herniated disc treatment, complicated gastrointestinal or urogenital procedures, kidney transplant, skin grafts, complicated wound management, and minimally invasive procedures are performed by veterinary surgeons. Most general practice veterinarians perform routine surgeries such as neuters and minor mass excisions; some also perform additional procedures.

Negative-pressure wound therapy Therapeutic technique

Negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT), also known as a vacuum assisted closure (VAC), is a therapeutic technique using a suction pump, tubing and a dressing to remove excess exudate and promote healing in acute or chronic wounds and second- and third-degree burns. The therapy involves the controlled application of subatmospheric pressure to the local wound environment, using a sealed wound dressing connected to a vacuum pump. The use of this technique in wound management increased dramatically over the 1990s and 2000s and a large number of studies have been published examining NPWT. NPWT has many indications for use including:

Incision and drainage and clinical lancing are minor surgical procedures to release pus or pressure built up under the skin, such as from an abscess, boil, or infected paranasal sinus. It is performed by treating the area with an antiseptic, such as iodine-based solution, and then making a small incision to puncture the skin using a sterile instrument such as a sharp needle, a pointed scalpel or a lancet. This allows the pus fluid to escape by draining out through the incision.

Surgical suture Medical device used to hold body tissues together

Surgical suture is a medical device used to hold body tissues together after an injury or surgery. Application generally involves using a needle with an attached length of thread. A number of different shapes, sizes, and thread materials have been developed over its millennia of history. Surgeons, physicians, dentists, podiatrists, eye doctors, registered nurses and other trained nursing personnel, medics, clinical pharmacists and veterinarians typically engage in suturing. Surgical knots are used to secure the sutures.

Scrubs (clothing) Lightweight, washable clothing worn by hospital staff or other medical personnel

Scrubs are the sanitary clothing worn by physicians, nurses, and other workers involved in patient care in hospitals. Originally designed for use by surgeons and other operating room personnel, who would put them on when sterilizing themselves, or "scrubbing in", before surgery, they are now worn by many hospital personnel.

Wound closure strip Porous surgical tape used for closing small wounds

Wound closure strips are porous surgical tape strips which can be used to close small wounds. They are applied across the laceration in a manner which pulls the skin on either side of the wound together. Wound closure strips may be used instead of sutures (stitches) in some injuries, because they lessen scarring and are easier to care for.

A retained surgical instrument is any item inadvertently left behind in a patient’s body in the course of surgery. There are few books about it and it is thought to be underreported. As a preventable medical error, it occurs more frequently than "wrong site" surgery. The consequences of retained surgical tools include injury, repeated surgery, excess monetary cost, loss of hospital credibility and in some cases the death of the patient.

A cyst is a pathological epithelial lined cavity that fills with fluid or soft material and usually grows from internal pressure generated by fluid being drawn into the cavity from osmosis. The bones of the jaws, the mandible and maxilla, are the bones with the highest prevalence of cysts in the human body. This is due to the abundant amount of epithelial remnants that can be left in the bones of the jaws. The enamel of teeth is formed from ectoderm, and so remnants of epithelium can be left in the bone during odontogenesis. The bones of the jaws develop from embryologic processes which fuse together, and ectodermal tissue may be trapped along the lines of this fusion. This "resting" epithelium is usually dormant or undergoes atrophy, but, when stimulated, may form a cyst. The reasons why resting epithelium may proliferate and undergo cystic transformation are generally unknown, but inflammation is thought to be a major factor. The high prevalence of tooth impactions and dental infections that occur in the bones of the jaws is also significant to explain why cysts are more common at these sites.

References

  1. "Medline Sterile 100% Cotton Woven Gauze Sponges".
  2. Amanda Grant-Orser, Paul Davies, Sukhbir Sony Singh, "The lost sponge: patient safety in the operating room" Canadian Medical Association Journal184:11:1275–1278 (Aug 7, 2012) full text
  3. Khoshbaten, Manouchehr; Tahsini-Tekantapeh, Sepideh (January 2017). "Endoscopic removal of retained large surgical gauze: a case report". Revista Española de Enfermedades Digestivas. 109 (1): 73–75. doi: 10.17235/reed.2016.4225/2016 . ISSN   1130-0108. PMID   28081611.

Bibliography