Introduction:

Retained foreign items are infrequent but can generate serious morbidity. Although some risk factors have been recognized and complementary detection systems developed, it continues to be a major problem from a health and medical legal point of view.

Objectives:

to examine a case study at Hospital Maciel, focusing on clinical presentation and complications.

Patients and methods:

7 patients treated at the General Surgery and Urology Departments in Hospital Maciel, between 2013-2016. The main results analized are clinical presentation and complications, as well as the presence of recongnized risk factors.

Results:

In all patients, the foreign bodies were compresses. In 2 cases the foreign body did not elicit symptoms whereas in 4 cases it did. In the latter, 2 had an early and a late presentation. The material count was incorrect in only one case. No patient died from the resulting complications

Discussion:

Because retained surgical ítems will be a problem as long as surgical procedures are performed, it is necessary to emphasize on a systematic approach accompanied by complementary diagnostic tools that are also available in cases of item miscount.

Conclusions:

Risk factors were present almost without exception in our casuistry. Also, the incidence seems to be higher than that reported in the literature.

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