Radiologically trackable surgical sponges
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A detectable surgical article, comprising:
- material capable of at least one of absorbing fluids within a body and packing bodily structures; and
a radiopaque object affixed to said material, wherein the radiopaque object produces a non-polygon-shaped radiographically imaged profile when the radiopaque object is radiographically scanned while orientated in at least one position and wherein said radiographically imaged profile exhibits a radiographically imaged contrast throughout an entire area encompassed by a perimeter of the radiographically imaged profile when the radiopaque object is radiographically scanned while orientated in any position.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The apparatus and method is provided that employs a “radiopaque” object to count and account for surgical sponges in an operating room. A radiopaque object is embedded in surgical sponges so that a scanning device can detect and count a large number of the sponges within a container. The container is designed to minimize contact with the sponges by humans. In addition, a surgical team can insure that no surgical sponge is left in a patient without performing the messy and time-consuming job of individually counting sponges as they are entered and disposed of from the surgical site.
225 Citations
24 Claims
-
1. A detectable surgical article, comprising:
-
material capable of at least one of absorbing fluids within a body and packing bodily structures; and a radiopaque object affixed to said material, wherein the radiopaque object produces a non-polygon-shaped radiographically imaged profile when the radiopaque object is radiographically scanned while orientated in at least one position and wherein said radiographically imaged profile exhibits a radiographically imaged contrast throughout an entire area encompassed by a perimeter of the radiographically imaged profile when the radiopaque object is radiographically scanned while orientated in any position. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 18, 19)
-
-
9. A method of counting surgical articles, comprising:
-
receiving a plurality of articles capable of at least one of absorbing fluids within a body and packing bodily structures, wherein each one of said articles includes a radiopaque object; radiographically scanning the plurality of articles simultaneously, wherein the radiopaque object of each one of said articles produces a radiographically imaged profile dependent upon a shape of the radiopaque object during said scanning; and determining the number of radiopaque objects at least partially dependent upon the radiographically imaged profile corresponding to each one of said radiopaque objects. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 20)
-
-
12. A product line of detectable surgical articles, comprising:
a plurality of articles each including a material capable of at least one of absorbing fluids within a body and packing bodily structures and a spherical shaped radiopaque object affixed to said material, wherein the radiopaque object of each one of said articles produces a respective radiographically imaged profile when radiographically scanned while orientated in any position, wherein a first portion of said articles has a first as-manufactured physical configuration and a second portion of said articles has a second as-manufactured physical configuration different than the first as-manufactured physical configuration, and wherein the radiographically imaged profile of the radiopaque object of each one of said articles corresponds to said configuration of a respective one of said articles. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
21. A system for counting surgical articles, comprising:
-
means for receiving a plurality of article capable of at least one of absorbing fluids within a body and packing bodily structures; means for scanning said articles simultaneously, wherein a radiopaque object of each one of said articles produces a radiographically imaged profile dependent upon a shape of the radiopaque object during said scanning; and means for determining the number of radiopaque objects at least partially dependent upon the radiographically imaged profile corresponding to each one of said radiopaque objects. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24)
-
Specification