Pulsatile lavage irrigator tip, a rare radiolucent retained foreign body in the pelvis: a case report

Retained foreign bodies after surgery have the potential to cause serious medical complications for patients and bring fourth serious medico-legal consequences for surgeons and hospitals. Standard operating room protocols have been adopted to reduce the occurrence of the most common retained foreign bodies. Despite these precautions, radiolucent objects and uncounted components/pieces of instruments are at risk to be retained in the surgical wound. We report the unusual case of a retained plastic pulsatile lavage irrigator tip in the surgical wound during acetabulum fracture fixation, which was subsequently identified on routine postoperative computed tomography. Revision surgery was required in order to remove the retained object, and the patient had no further complications.