Incorrect Number of Sponges in the Initial Count

CHAPTER 1

I'm Cindy Fletcher, here at North Shore Community College where I'm a Professor of Surgical Technology. And today we're going to demonstrate what happens if your surgical sponge count is incorrect during your initial count.

CHAPTER 2

Now, Ray-Tec sponges come in packs of 10. Laparotomy sponges come in packs of five. For this demonstration, we are going to be using Ray-Tec sponges. So my circulator is going to open the sponges. Remove them from the package.

CHAPTER 3

And they have a band, the manufacturer bands the sponges. So I wanna break the band while my circulator is watching and we are going to count together. A count for surgical sponges is audible, visual, and concurable. So we are gonna count the sponges together. Ready? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

CHAPTER 4

So this is an incorrect count, but we are going to count again just to make sure. My circulator, I wanna make sure that she sees both sides of the sponges as well. So ready? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. So this is an incorrect package of sponges.

CHAPTER 5

So where they are clean, I can hand them off to my circulator. So if the patient is not in the room already, the circulator can take those sponges out of the OR and dispose of them. If the patient is already in the room, that pack of sponges has got to be bagged, labeled, and put off the side. It cannot leave the operating room until everything is done at the end and the procedure is complete. It has to remain in the room. So, that's how you would handle a situation where your sponge count was off.