System, methods and apparatus related to surgical sponges and surgical sponge counting and detection systems. The system, methods and apparatus may include features such as a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) scanner adapted to detect entry and exit of a surgical sponge RFID identifier associated with each of a plurality of surgical sponges. In addition, an Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) scanner may be included that is adapted to detect the presence of a surgical sponge having an EAS identifier associated with each of the plurality of surgical sponges. A control circuit may be configured to determine and provide an indication that all the sponges have been removed from the patient, or that one or more sponges still remain in the patient.
