Automatic gauze tracking in laparoscopic surgery using image texture analysis.

Background And Objective: Inadvertent retained surgical gauzes are an infrequent medical error but can have devastating consequences in the patient health and in the surgeon professional reputation. This problem seems easily preventable implementing standardized protocols for counting but due to human errors it still persists in surgery. The omnipresence of gauzes, their small size, and their similar appearance with tissues when they are soaked in blood make this error eradication really complex.