Heart Injury with Projectile Lodged Inside the Heart

Abstract

Penetrating heart injuries present high mortality rates. Increasing rates of urban violence have contributed to a significant rise in the number of heart injuries by firearm projectiles. Such injuries are associated with the highest mortality rates among penetrating cardiac injuries and may involve one or more cardiac chambers. We present the case of a police officer who, in an approach to five robbers, suffered a transfixed cardiac injury by firearm with the projectile having been lodged inside the right ventricle. This patient was successfully operated, 65 days after the injury, at our institution.

Comment on "Heart Injury with Projectile Lodged Inside the Heart"

“…So, I believe that these cases are interesting, worth of mention and the surgical approach was simpler than the one used by Volpe et al [1] .…”

“…I read with much interest the article of Volpe et al [1] on "Heart injury with projectile lodged inside the heart". When consulting the references, we found three important articles by Brazilian authors.…”

Removal of a pellet from the left ventricle trabeculae: A case report

“…The gold standard procedure for managing such patients globally is surgical, which of course depends on the patient's clinical condition and hemodynamic stability of the bullet [3]. The mechanism of trauma, clinical conditions in hospitalization and the presence of lesions in multiple heart chambers are the most important variables for determining the outcome in these patients [2,4]. It is crucial to assess the cardiac injury extent, bullet trajectory, localizing and extraction of bullet immediately, which routinely performed using Computed tomography, transthoracic echocardiography, and transesophageal echocardiography [5].…”