Improving Safety in Operating Room: Design and Experimentation of a RFID-Based Medical Device for Surgical Sponges Management

In this paper the authors intend to present an application of radio frequency identification technology (RFID) in health care, with the aim to improve clinical safety in operating room. It was designed and built a prototype for counting sponges during surgery. The presented system, following in vitro and in vivo tests, has allowed to obtain very good results in terms of detection of the gauze in the abdomen of the patient and, in general, in management of them during the clinical practice.