Gauze pledget (torunda ball)
A small ball or folded wad of sterile gauze, typically mounted in the jaws of a clamp (such as a sponge-holding forceps or mosquito clamp) rather than held directly by hand.
How it is used
Used to dab or clean small areas of the surgical field, apply antiseptic inside a cavity or wound, or absorb small amounts of blood in confined spaces where a full-size sponge is impractical.
Clinical tip
Never leave it loose in a wound or cavity unmounted in a clamp; due to its small size it is a recognized retained-foreign-body risk and is therefore always included in the formal sponge count.
Sources
This entry is part of the Instriq catalog, researched and written per specialty from real web research -- never generated or invented without verification -- and reviewed skeptically and independently before publication. How this catalog is written.
History
Added to the catalog on 2026-10-05. Content last updated: 2026-10-07.
Dates derived from the project's public version-control history on GitHub, not a live collaborative edit log.