Study: Bar-Coded Sponges Reduce Error Risk

A randomized controlled trial conducted by Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital finds bar-coded, computer-assisted surgical sponge counting systems reduce the chance of counting errors during patient surgery by a factor of three to one.

The Boston study, which was based on 300 general surgery operations, showed that using a bar-coded surgical sponge system during surgery detected more than ten times more counting errors than traditional counting methods in cases where sponges were misplaced or counted incorrectly.