[A case of retained surgical sponge penetrated into the sigmoid colon].

A thread of surgical sponge was found by colonoscopy at the sigmoid colon wall in the tip of a granuloma. The patient was a 50-year-old woman who complained of diarrhea and had a history of Cesarean section and complete hysterectomy. A radiopaque thread that used to be part of the surgical sponge was demonstrated with plain pelvic X-ray films. Abdominal CT study revealed the gossypibioma including a radiopaque thread in front of the sacrum. The patient was admitted for endoscopic extraction. Upon endoscopic observation, no thread was found and the fistula had also disappeared. The surgical sponge was considered to have been spontaneously expelled from the fistula during the intervening 22-day period.