title: Asymptomatic retained surgical gauze towel diagnosed 32 years after nephrectomy.
abstract: Retained surgical gauze is a rare but known problem in patients who have medical history of surgery. Suspicion and evaluation of this rare condition is sometimes very difficult for the clinician because retained surgical sponges can be totally asymptomatic or can hide themselves perfectly in the plain abdominal films. For this reason clinican should excersize high rate of suspicion, should not solely depend upon plain films and should consider more sophisticated examinations like ultrasonography (US) or computerized tomography for the appropriate management of these retained sponges. We present here a very unusual and late presentation of surgically retained gauze which gave a false appearance of a kidney with decreased functional activitity in the excretory urography (EU) 32 years after nephrectomy.
authors.affiliation: URO-TIP Health Services, Bagdat cad. No: 448/1, Suadiye, Istanbul, 81070, Turkey. cevik@urotip.com.tr
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cevik
authors.forename: Ozdal
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dillioglugil
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ozveri
authors.forename: Atif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akdas
mesh_terms: D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009392:Nephrectomy; D015503:Surgical Sponges / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014567:Urography