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Management of bullets lodged in the heart

A 29-year-old man presented with a bullet lodged in his heart. He arrived at the hospital in a hemodynamically stable condition. The transesophageal echocardiogram performed for diagnosis revealed the location of the bullet. After 18 days, he underwent an elective off-pump cardiac surgery fto remove the bullet from the right ventricle wall and interventricular septum. The postoperative evolution was uneventful. The authors discuss the therapeutic options for removing bullets from thr heart, based on published data. They concluded that some asymptomatic patients with a bullet embedded in the heart should undergo surgery.

Wounds; Wounds; Foreign bodies; Heart injuries; Heart septum; Heart septum; Heart ventricles; Heart ventricles


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