Unexplained Pain Due to the Retained Surgical Item in the Abdominal Cavity: A Rare Presentation

Mohammad Sadegh Sanie¹, Lohrasb Taheri², Mohamed Amin Ghobadifar^3* and Navid Kalani⁴

¹Department of Anaesthesiology, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran.

²Department of General Surgery, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran.

³Zoonoses Research Center, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran.

⁴Department of Student Research Committee, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2176

ABSTRACT: Retained surgical items (RSI) is a problem of surgical patient safety. RSIs after surgical procedures in the abdomen are critical causes of intraperitoneal infections. Unexplained pain due to the RSIs after a surgery is a rare presentation. There are few publications in the worldwide literature described manifestations associated with RSIs. In this article, we report a rare case presented with unexplained and persistent abdominal pain associated with a hemovac cap forgotten in the abdominal cavity a few months ago. A 52-year-old female presented to our clinic with abdominal pain, constipation, nausea, vomiting, and pyrexia of unknown origin. She had a history of oophorectomy and total abdominal hysterectomy to decrease the risk of ovarian cancer. Clinical examination revealed painful and distended abdominal wall with fever. Abdominal X-ray analysis showed extensively air-filled small and large bowels. A laparotomy was performed, and interestingly, a retained hemovac cap was found which was densely adherent to the surrounding bowel. This case report shows that unexplained and persistent abdominal pain can represent due to RSI after abdominal surgical procedures.

KEYWORDS: Abdominal abscess; Abdominal cavity; Abdominal pain; Foreign bodies; Hysterectomy; Surgery

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