World's first RFID system for counting and detection of surgical sponges receives green signal from FDA

Filed in archive Companies on June 19, 2007

The RFID based SmartSponge System has finally got the green signal from FDA. This system is aimed at furthering the safety of patients inside the operating room and preventing any chance of a foreign body inside the patient. Up till now the nurses used to spend fifteen to thirty minutes before and after the operation counting surgical sponges and instruments manually which is not an error free procedure for sure. The tracking procedure involved a number of steps - firstly the baseline count was conducted before the start of the operation then they were counted a second time before the stitches and again they were counted at the time of the closure of the wound. The final counting is done at the time of closure of the skin which makes it a tedious and error prone procedure.

All this will be history as SmartSponge System is expected to take over the tedious and error prone procedure of counting surgical equipments before and after the operation. It is being labeled as the world's first RFID system which can count and detect surgical towels and sponges. In case any of these goes missing the system will promptly alert the medical team.

Passive RFID tags smaller than a dime are permanently affixed to sponges which are not required to be physically separated for being scanned hence minimizing handling of spoiled sponges by the nursing staff. It is estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 cases are reported each year with regards to surgical sponge being left in the body of the patient during operation and it could lead to unnecessary complications, repeated surgeries and in extreme cases death of the patient. All these figures may come down drastically when this system is made available commercially by the end of the year.