Over the past 10 years, robotically-assisted surgery has become more popular. Unlike the assumption that robotic surgical procedure may not lead to retaining foreign objects within the patient’s body, ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization (PSO) informed that foreign objects may sometimes be retained even during robotic surgical procedure.
According to ECRI Institute PSO medical director, Karen P. Zimmer, MD, MPH, FAAP, sometimes robotic surgery may involve open surgery, where different instruments which are not included in the pre-operative count may be needed while performing surgery. These instruments will have to be included in the final count so that accidental retention of foreign objects may be avoided.
A recently released Patient Safety E-lert entitled "Retained Foreign Objects: It's Not the Robot's Fault," represents this patient safety issue where retaining foreign objects has been associated with robotically assisted surgery. This issue was brought to the notice of ECRI Institute PSO wherein the report analysis was presented by healthcare providers involved in the report. ECRI Institute will share this specific E-lert with the healthcare community with intent to research the best approaches for an improved patient care.
According to the director of operations at ECRI Institute PSO, Barbara Rebold, RN, MS, CPHQ, the reports that were submitted to Patient Safety Organizations will Assist in creating awareness about unintentional or undetected risks. Patient safety reports will give rise to increase in patient safety or sharing with the healthcare community about the importance of following safety and cautious practices while performing surgeries.
Source: http://www.ecri.org/