Surgical Sponge Retained in Femoral Canal for 22 Years: A Case Report

Background: Retained surgical items (RSIs) are not very common in the orthopedic surgery. Here, we are reporting a case of a sponge pad left in the femoral canal for 22 years. We could not find any other reported case of retained surgical sponge in the femoral canal and that is what makes this case report unique. Case Report: The patient was a 42 year-old man who underwent surgery for the fixation of a fractured femur 22 years ago. On August 2020, this patient was seen complaining about pain at the surgical site. The assessments revealed a sponge pad retained in the femoral canal, which was removed by surgery. The union of fractured bone did not take place in the first surgery, so after 6 months a second surgery was performed and the dynamic compression plate (DCP) placed was successfully replaced with an intramedullary nail. Conclusion: The surgeon could not detect the pad 22 years ago and the patient had no significant symptom all this time. The most important take-away lesson of this paper is that retention of surgical pads could also occur with correct gauze counting, so detection and prevention protocols for RSIs must be taken seriously.