Objectives

To recognize suggestive findings of gossypiboma in conventional radiography and CT according to a serie of cases seen in our center and to learn to differentiate early and late presenting gossypiboma from intraabdominal neoplastic proliferative process.

Background

Gossypiboma is one of the terms used to describe a mass made of surgical material left forgotten after a surgery, surrounded by granulatory inflammatory tissue. It can be found in any region of the body submitted to a surgical intervention, reason why is very important to have clinical suspicion so as to request the appropriate study. Different imagenologic techniques can be used, within them, conventional radiography and computed tomography (CT) play a fundamental role.

Imaging findings OR Procedure findings

At conventional radiography, they present as masses with irregular radiopaque lines, sometimes associated to an increase of density of its surrounding soft tissue. In CT, they usually appear as masses of well defined regular borders with soft tissue density and a hyper-dense component inside.

Certain features help differentiate an early presenting from a late presenting gossypiboma. The first one presents until 6 months after the surgery and air bubbles can be seen inside. An infectious process must be discarded. Late presenting gossypibomas present after 6 months post surgery and have calcifications.

Conclusion

Both the communication between physician and radiologist, and the recognition of main features in the distinct imagenologic techniques, are essential for making an early diagnosis and an adequate treatment, allowing to exclude among other entities, an intraabdominal neoplastic proliferative process.