[Retained foreign bodies from the point of view of the jurist]

Civil processes and criminal procedures against physicians and/or medical assistants due to retained foreign bodies following surgery are not uncommon within the framework of the booming liability disputes in hospitals. As the protection and safety of the patient is the highest priority, the physician must take all feasible and reasonable precautions against such a possibility during both in- and outpatient operations.These include clear, written instructions for the assisting medical personnel in relation to count control, its documentation, final revision and specification in the surgical report. The delegation of swab and instrument counts to reliable OP nurses and other personnel is juristically possible and leads to their own responsibility, based on principle of basic trust, i.e. the physician can rely on the correct count of abdominal sponges, swabs etc. If an error does occur, the organizational liability does not fall on those responsible for the operation.