LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2006--Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. (AMEX:PST - News) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, SurgiCount Medical, has received FDA 510(k) clearance to market and sell its patented Safety-Sponge(TM) System. The SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System is an integrated turn-key program of thermally affixed, data matrix tagged surgical sponges, line-of-sight scanning technology, and documentation that offers surgeons and hospitals a solution to gossypiboma -- the term for surgical sponges accidentally left inside a human body after surgery. The Safety-Sponge System is the first computer-assisted program of counting sponges ever cleared by the FDA.

"With an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 occurrences in the United States each year, retained sponges are a very significant problem for patients, surgeons, nurses and hospitals," said Bill Adams, Chairman of SurgiCount Medical. "In addition to the tragic human toll of repeat surgeries, permanent disability, pain and suffering or even death, liability settlements and other costs related to retained sponges amount to an estimated $750 Million to $1 Billion every year."

Adams continued, "Until now, hospitals had no alternative to the manual sponge counting procedure that has been in use for many years. SurgiCount's Safety-Sponge System will help reduce or eliminate sponge counting errors and improve patient safety in the surgical environment. Although we had already enjoyed 510(k) exemption status, with this new level of FDA clearance on the total SurgiCount System now in hand, we believe we have a significant competitive advantage which raises the bar for entry into the patient safety field. We feel SurgiCount can move ahead much more aggressively with plans to establish our Safety-Sponge System as the standard of care in the healthcare industry."

SurgiCount and the Safety-Sponge System

SurgiCount Medical's Safety-Sponge System works much like a grocery store check-out system. Every surgical sponge and towel is pre-labeled by the manufacturer with an individual and unique bar coded label, and a scanning counter is used to read and record the labels. No change is required in a hospital's established counting procedures: sponges are counted and recorded by the system at the beginning of the procedure and again as they are removed from the patient, when a fail-safe alarm system immediately alerts the staff if any sponges are unaccounted for. For more information, visit www.surgicountmedical.com.

About Patient Safety Technologies, Inc.

Patient Safety Technologies, Inc. (PST) is a holding company that owns assets in various businesses. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, SurgiCount Medical, Inc., is a developer and manufacturer of patient safety products and services. For more information on Patient Safety Technologies, Inc., please contact the company directly at 310-895-7750, or by email at info@patientsafetytechnologies.com or www.patientsafetytechnologies.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such because the context of the statement will include words such as Patient Safety Technologies plans, expects, should, believes, anticipates or words of similar import. Stockholders, potential investors and other readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are predictions based only on current information and expectations that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future events or results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by the forward-looking statements. Certain of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. These forward-looking statements are only made as of the date of this press release and Patient Safety Technologies does not undertake any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.