Gossypiboma/textiloma mimicking as tumour recurrence

A surgical sponge accidentally left in a surgical wound, called a textiloma or gossypiboma, is underreported in literature due to medicolegal consequences. Abdominal textiloma may be asymptomatic or present serious gastrointestinal complications such as bowel obstruction, perforation or fistula formation because of misdiagnosis. It may mimic abscess formation in early stage or soft-tissue masses in chronic stage. If there is an intraabdominal abscess resistant to catheter drainage in the postoperative period or an intraabdominal soft tissue mass with a history of previous surgery, textiloma should be included in the differential diagnosis. Whirl-like spongiform pattern especially on CT, well-defined border and fibrous capsule especially on MRI can help in the diagnosis of textiloma. We describe a case of intraabdominal textiloma mimicking abscess and soft tissue tumour on CT and MRI examination.