Citation

Michalsen KL, Iguidbashian JP, Kyser JP, Long WB. Tex. Heart Inst. J. 2015; 42(4): 393-396.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Cardiovascular Surgical Research Laboratories, Texas Heart Institute)

DOI

10.14503/THIJ-13-4023

PMID

26413027

Abstract

Nail-gun injury to the heart is rare. Nail-gun injury to the interventricular septum is rarer: we could find only 5 reported cases, and none involving a child. We report 2 additional cases, in which nails penetrated the interventricular septum without causing acute pericardial tamponade, heart block, or shunt across the septum. Transesophageal echocardiography provides a dynamic way to evaluate the patient preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively. In the cases reported here, both the adult with multiple interventricular nails and the child with a single nail underwent foreign-object removal via median sternotomy. The child needed cardiopulmonary bypass for removal of the nail. There were no short-term or long-term sequelae from these interventricular septal injuries.

Language: en