Case report: a gossypiboma in the shoulder.

We present the case of a 15-year-old boy who underwent shoulder surgery for repair of a Bankart lesion after dislocation of his right shoulder. A compress was left in the surgical wound. This case is presented to highlight an important pitfall in the diagnosis of gossypiboma (foreign body reaction): when the wires of a compress are visualized on X-ray, beware of the fact that it is possibly located inside the body. The diagnosis of an abscess was made by ultrasound. The compress wires were visualized on radiographs.