Iatrogenic Abdominal Firm Lump: A Case Report of a Retained Surgical Item Detected 8 Years Post-Abdominoplasty

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Author Info

Hamad Alsanea Athary Saleem Fahad Alhamadi Mohammed Asad

Corresponding Author

Hamad Alsanea
Department of General Surgery, Al-Adan Hospital, Kuwait

A B S T R A C T

Introduction and Importance: Retained surgical body (RSB) is unusual life-threatening condition occurred postoperatively. Despite its rarity, multiple protective and management policies were documented by policymakers. Case Presentation: A 62-year-old female patient presented with a few months’ history of abdominal mass. She presented to our hospital 8 years post-abdominoplasty that was performed in a private sector. The underlying cause of the abdominal mass was identified by abdominal and pelvic computed tomography (CT) with IV contrast as a surgically retained foreign tubular object. Then, the decision was made to proceed with an open surgical technique to remove the RSB, which was defined as a missed drain tube. The postoperative period was uneventful. Clinical Discussion: Post-operative RSB, as a retained drain fragment, is a surgical challenge that necessitates standardization of error reporting strategies, awareness enhancement, and improvement of professional communication between surgical teams in the operation room. Conclusion: This case highlights the serious consequences of RSB and the radiologic tools in foreign materials identification. We report the case of a 62-year-old female patient with a long-standing history of abdominal mass, found to be caused by an unintentionally retained drain tube missed 8 years post-abdominoplasty.

Article Info

Article Type

Case Report

Publication history

Received: Mon 29, Jan 2024
Accepted: Sat 17, Feb 2024
Published: Fri 01, Mar 2024

Copyright

© 2023 Hamad Alsanea. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.CRSS.2024.01.01