Claudio Ricci, Roberto Corinaldesi, Lucia Calculli, Raffaele Pezzilli, Riccardo Casadei, Giorgia Zucchini, Donatella Santini
In spite of careful intraoperative precautions and gauze counts, mistakes can still occur during surgery. In the case reported, a retained gauze leaved during a surgical approach for removing a solid-cystic papillary tumor localized in the pancreatic tail, caused both persistent abdominal discomfort and the presence of an abdominal cystic lesion at imaging techniques. When a previous operative history is present, a foreign body should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of a patient with an intraabdominal cystic mass. Finally, radio-opaque marker should be routinely used by surgeons in order to reach a correct diagnosis in operated patients having retained gauze.
