Radiologically trackable surgical sponges
OwnerM. Daniel Ballardinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims24
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.