All surgical swabs used through the trial delivery should be accounted for, placed in a swabsafe and labelled ‘trial’ and the time recorded on the whiteboard. The size and number of surgical swabs used must be documented on the whiteboard plus the time inserted. In the event of an incorrect number of surgical swabs, or sundry objects being current when opened, the whole packet and its contents have to be instantly faraway from the Operating Theatre / Room, placed in and retained in a sealed bag.

Used surgical swabs are handed off the sterile area directly into the suitable sized swabsafe container by the scrub practitioner. Additional surgical swabs, devices and gadgets are added as described above. If throughout a process there may be a large amount of swabs used, the completed swabsafe container of the same size swabs may be bagged in multiples of 25 The bag should be labelled clearly with the scale of the swab, the variety of swabs inside and be initialled by the circulator.

When the affected person returns to the operating theatre for the elimination of the intentionally retained surgical swab, the Team establish the size, quantity and site of the surgical swab from the previous documentation (surgeon’s operative sheet and Accountable Items Record). Information on the retained surgical swab should be included within the handover from the scrub practitioner to the PACU staff and then to the ward nurse, previous to transferring the affected person back to the ward. Only X-Ray detectable surgical swabs are to be used if deliberately retained in the operative site. A plain X-Ray should be performed, even when the item is deemed non-x-ray detectable.

A moveable X- Ray machine should be used, as image intensifier might fail to find X-Ray detectable surgical swabs. As quickly because the trial supply proceeds to a caesarean part, the additional surgical swabs and supplementary objects are opened and checked as per the SOP.

During routine, controlled surgical procedures particular person swabs are placed into the swabsafe as they are able to be discarded. The surgical swab is then rolled up and placed into a section of the swabsafe container, witnessed by the circulating practitioner. The surgical swabs should be opened out absolutely to verify the size and that there's just one swab.

It can be important to make it clear on the request form that the pattern is from a wound quite than a superficial pores and skin lesion . Tetanus immunisation status must be established in all patients who current with a wound, and vaccination given the place necessary. The Swabs are initially counted by one team and any Swabs required for use by Radiology are transferred and counted from the same Accountable Item Record. Post process the swabs are returned to the surgical staff to allow an accurate accountable objects verify.

The final accountable items checks all of the accountable items and trays in use, ie surgical swabs, blades, devices and needles. The totals documented on the Accountable Items Record and the Whiteboard should correspond.

The scrub and circulating practitioners should verify the variety of swab secure containers twice earlier than inserting in the bag. Additional surgical swabs opened in the course of the process should be counted and the new whole documented and initialled by the circulating practitioner on the Accountable Items Record and the Whiteboard. All surgical swabs have to be counted singly, whilst observing that the Raytec Strip and Tape is current between the scrub and circulator practitioners.