Gossypiboma Following Emergency Nephrectomy for Wunderlich Syndrome

We describe the imaging findings of a case of an intra-abdominal gossypiboma (retained surgical sponge) in an asymptomatic 61-year-old man who underwent an emergency nephrectomy because of a Wunderlich syndrome secondary to a renal cell carcinoma. A follow-up computed tomography was performed 4 months after the emergency surgery and showed an extraperitoneal lesion with gas bubbles and radiopaque markings in the left hemiabdomen, consistent with a retained surgical sponge (“gossypiboma” or “textiloma”) in the anterior pararenal space. The patient underwent scheduled surgery for extraction of the textiloma.