Efficient life saving system to track surgical instruments

Abstract

Improper handling of surgical instruments and sponges during the course of an operation on human body can prove to be fatal. This paper predominantly deals with prevention of misplacement of surgical elements by keeping account of both instruments and sponges being used, automatically rather than conventional manual checking. This is done by constructing a suitable casing with infra-red sensors to detect the presence of instruments. In the absence of any instrument for an abnormally long time period, a recorded-voice-message notifies the same. For sponges, a radio-frequency tag is attached. A check-in station and a check-out station, which are essentially antennae that read these RF-ID (Radio Frequency Identification) codes, are used. These are interfaced with software component that enables to monitor to number of instruments and sponges in the patients system at any instant. A GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) module at the end of the operation sends a message to the authority concerned in case of any discrepancy in the overall count. This system is expected to be more advantageous as it can track the surgical instruments periodically instead one final scan test for instruments. Traditional time-consuming and expensive methods like scanning the patient, taking X-ray post-operation, can be simply eliminated if this idea is implemented.