# Traceability of Surgical Instruments: A Systematic Review
Their findings highlighted that moving away from disposable instruments and standardizing equipment reduces supply costs, with savings of up to 20% and a 40-70% removal of surgical instruments, without compromising time or safety in the operating room. [PERSON] et al. [12] reviewed approaches to rationalizing surgical instrument trays. They suggest that future work should focus on crucial aspects such as the traceability of surgical instruments and cross-sectional analysis of surgical tray contents. This perspective highlights promising research areas to optimize efficiency and resource management in surgery further. The literature result is summarized in Table 1.  
To the best of the author's knowledge, our systematic review is the first on the traceability of surgical instruments, providing an in-depth view of the systems linked to this traceability. Our study also provides guidelines for further research in this area. We organized our work around the following research questions:  
* What are the different levels of a traceability system? * What are the different techniques for identifying surgical instruments? * What are the benefits of a traceability system? * What are the recommendations for future traceability work? The remainder of this paper is organized into six sections as follows. Section 2 details the typical architecture of the traceability system. In Section 3, we explain the methodology related to the bibliographic search. Sections 4 and 5 cover the interpretation and the discussion of the relevant works to our review. Finally, Section 6 concludes the paper with perspectives for future work. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline
**Paper** & **Year** & **Type of Research Paper** & **Content** & **Summary of Results** \\ \hline [PERSON] et al. [10] & 2019 & Literature review & Economic & (1) Economic Order Quantity, Simple rules, Constraint programming, Integer programming, Markov chain, Simulation and Semi-Markov process are the current methods and strategies used in the management of surgical supplies and sterile instruments inventory to achieve savings in operating rooms. & (2) Healthcare professionals highlight improving preference cards and quantifying usage/waste as key practices for reducing operating room expenses. & (1) Doctor preference cards and individual feedback are the techniques deployed for standardization and cost effectiveness on pediatric surgical. & \\ \hline [PERSON] et al. [11] & 2020 & Qualitative systematic review & Economic & (1) The majority of authors and publications discussing surgical ray rationalization (STR) originate from the United States. & (2) The primary methodologies and strategies mentioned for STR include checklists, focus groups, observation, and standardization. & \\ [PERSON] et al. [12] & 2021 & Scoping review & Economic & (3) STR positively influences operational and economic performance, with its main impact observed in operating rooms & \\  & & & and the sterilization process. & (4) Future research could focus on two promising areas: instrument traceability and cross-sectional analysis. & \\ \hline Ours & Literature review & & (1) A traceability system operates across three distinct levels. & \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Summary of related work.