Make childbirth and surgery safer by preventing accidentally retained surgical items

A major risk of childbirth/surgery is the possibility that foreign objects may be accidentally left inside. Around 1 in 12 people require surgery or go through childbirth each year in the UK. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment in many health conditions such as cancer and chronic diseases and childbirth brings joy. Every year in the UK, there are around 12 million operations and 750,000 maternity events.Surgical swabs(also known as sponges) are the most common 'retained foreign object', which is also the most common procedural 'never event'. Other retained items such as needles and instruments are rare. There is good data that these events are under-reported globally due to litigation and their indefensible nature. First reported in 1884, this should simply not continue to happen in this day and age. Patients are not made aware of this during the consenting process as it is considered preventable.

Retained swabs can cause extreme harm such as reoperations, severe infections, damage to organs (permanent damage in 16%, death in 5%). They can also cause cancer due to chronic irritation. The costs due to this problem to NHS amount to around £2 billion annually.

Data shows that 1 in 11 procedures have counting errors and as high as 1 in 500 procedures can have a swab left inside. This is more common in complex unpredictable areas with distractions and interruptions such as childbirth and difficult operations.

There is a need for a low-cost medical device to create a robust system to prevent accidental retention. We have developed a docking device that allows users to monitor swabs before, during, and after a procedure, including a method to measure blood loss. This simple, cost-e?ective solution with a UK IPO 'granted' patent is designed to make it impossible to leave a swab behind, vastly improving safety and efficiency.

Eureka's vision is to make childbirth and surgery safer. When tested in real-life like conditions in University Hospitals, Birmingham the device system proved to be to be significantly more reliable and accurate than counting (current NHS practice).This will lower costs and reduce the need for a second checker, a practice that is prone to human error and confirmation bias.

This grant will allow Eureka to collaborate with KIMAL, an established device manufacturer and Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, a large teaching hospital towards refinement of design towards manufacture, product development with patient and public involvement as well as real-world testing.