A different intracardiac mass: retained sponge.

We report a case involving a surgical sponge retained following an aortic valve replacement. The surgical sponge was placed into the left ventricle to protect calcified debris from falling down into the left ventricular cavity. However, the sponge was forgotten and left inside the patient. We identified the retained surgical sponge by transesophageal echocardiography, which was performed because of a difficulty in weaning the patient from the cardiopulmonary bypass.