What is "gossypiboma"

n. (context surgery English) A gauze or surgical sponge left inside a patient body during surgery.

Gossypiboma, textiloma or more broadly Retained Foreign Object (RFO) is the technical term for a surgical complications resulting from foreign materials, such as a surgical sponge, accidentally left inside a patient's body. The term "gossypiboma" is derived from the Latin gossypium (“cotton wool, cotton”) and the suffix -oma, meaning a tumor or growth, and describes a mass within a patient's body comprising a cotton matrix surrounded by a foreign body granuloma. "Textiloma" is derived from textile (surgical sponges have historically been made of cloth), and is used in place of gossypiboma due to the increasing use of synthetic materials in place of cotton.