Snapshots in surgery: A cautionary tale

Published: 07/04/2019

Authors: James OP and Williams GL

A member of the theatre team had a superficial injury to her leg from the spike of a circular stapler (CDH series, Ethicon Endosurgery, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) that has protruded through a sharps bin (a). Here, the surgeon did not retract the spike before disposal in an overfilled bin. All team members must take care when disposing of circular staplers, beginning with the surgeon retracting the spike immediately after checking the tissue ‘doughnuts’ (b).