Abstract
Gossypiboma is a mass within body consisting of a cotton matrix surrounded by a foreign-body reaction. Some patients may remain asymptomatic, while others develop early persistent infected conditions. Gossypiboma should be included in a differential diagnosis of a paravertebral mass in postoperative patients, and a thorough and a careful inspection of the surgical field before closure must be performed by surgeons to avoid the complications of gossypiboma even when there are correct counts. We present a patient in whom a gossypiboma at the 4th lumbar spine was encountered 40 years after a partial laminectomy with no subjective symptoms.
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Fig. 1.
A 60-year-old man who underwent left L3 and L4 partial laminectomy 40 years ago. Preoperative (A) anteroposterior and (B) lateral radiographs show left laminectomy state of L3 and L4.
![jkss-16-54f1.tif](/upload/SynapseXML/0089jkss/thumb/jkss-16-54f1.gif)
Fig. 2.
(A) Sagittal and (B) axial T1 weighted images show paravertebral mass with an intermediate signal intensity (arrows). (C) Sagittal and (D) axial T2 weighted images show a high signal intensity within the center of the lesion and a low signal intensity within the peripheral rim (arrows). (E) Sagittal and (F) axial enhanced images reveal strong enhancement of the peripheral rim of the lesion (arrows).
![jkss-16-54f2.tif](/upload/SynapseXML/0089jkss/thumb/jkss-16-54f2.gif)