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Case Reports
. 2025 Oct 13;17(10):e94478.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.94478. eCollection 2025 Oct.

Thirty-Five Years of Gossypiboma

Roberto Passa  1 , Michela Angelucci  2 , Chiara Pagnoni  1 , Sergio Valeri  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Thirty-Five Years of Gossypiboma

Roberto Passa et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

The term gossypiboma refers to a textile matrix object left in a body cavity during surgery. It is often mistaken for other pathologies and symptoms can be very heterogeneous. Retained surgical items often have legal as well as clinical consequences. To reduce the incidence of gossypiboma, safety procedures have been proposed that the surgical team must implement. In case of an occasional finding during another procedure, it is necessary to share the most correct management. The case we present involves a patient in whom an intra-abdominal mass was identified during a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The initial decision was to perform a biopsy of the mass and postpone the definitive surgery. Histological examination provided the diagnosis of gossypiboma. The patient's medical history revealed that the surgical item had been retained for 35 years. Subsequently, we performed a second operation in which the gossypiboma was removed at the same time as the cholecystectomy.

Keywords: abdominal surgery; general surgery; gossypiboma; retained surgical item; textile matrix.

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Conflict of interest statement

Human subjects: Informed consent for treatment and open access publication was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. CT scan shows the gossypiboma in the right iliac fossa in coronal view. The yellow arrow indicates the gossypiboma.
Figure 2
Figure 2. CT scan shows the gossypiboma in the right iliac fossa in axial view. The yellow arrow indicates the gossypiboma.
Figure 3
Figure 3. A macroscopic evaluation of the histological sample shows caseous necrosis within the mass caused by textile (green arrow) and plastic material (yellow arrow)
Figure 4
Figure 4. Hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) stain showing a foreign-body granulomatous reaction (black arrow) characterized by multinucleated giant cells and dystrophic calcification encasing residual surgical stitches (20x magnification)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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