Echocardiographic Demonstration of Multiple Gunshot Pellets in the Heart with Traumatic Cardiac Tamponade

Abstract

A 31 -year-old man sustained a gunshot injury to the chest with multiple pellets evident on chest X-ray. Nine pellets were shown to be intracardiac by echocardiography. There was no immediate cardiac dysfunction, but pericardial tamponade developed later. After pericardiocentesis, the patient made an uneventful recovery.