FDA concerned about dangers of medical fragments left in bodies

Bloomberg News/South Florida Sun-Sentinel, January 16, 2008

Fragments left inside patients from medical devices may injure or kill when the pieces shift on their own or are pulled by magnets in imaging machines, regulators at the Food and Drug Administration warned in a post on its Web site. About 1,000 incidents caused by medical device fragments are reported each year, involving more than 200 devices, the FDA said. The most common were catheter guide wires to the heart, followed by bone screws.