title: Radio-frequency identification of surgical sponges in the abdominal cavity of pigs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Counting the sponges is an important step in surgical procedures. A miscount may impact the patient's health, and it also has legal implications for the surgeon. This is an experimental study evaluating radio-frequency technology used in the perioperative period to identify surgical sponges left in the peritoneal cavity of swine.
  
  
  METHODS
  Radio-frequency labeled-disc identification tags were sewn into 40 surgical towels. Twenty labels had the ability to emit radio-frequency waves, and 20 labels were inert to radio-frequency identification. Twenty adult pigs that underwent laparotomy and randomly received two surgical sponges were scanned by a radio-frequency identification antenna.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This method presented a positive predictive value of 100% and 100% specificity and sensitivity, as all of the tagged surgical sponges were detected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Radio-frequency identification has been proved to be a useful method for the identification of surgical sponges within the abdominal cavities of swine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
authors.forename: Julio Cesar
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wiederkehr
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Surgery, Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil ; Department of Oncoloy, Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ricardo R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Gama
authors.affiliation: Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Henrique A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Wiederkehr
authors.affiliation: Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Kleber
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stelmasuk
authors.affiliation: Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Caroline A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.affiliation: Faculdade Evangélica do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Wiederkehr
keywords: RFID; Radio-frequency identification; Surgical sponges; Surgical towels