Case report on conservative management with positive outcomes in a patient with a gunshot injury, suggesting tailored imaging decisions.
Penetrating cardiac injuries due to gunshot wounds are often rapidly fatal, typically necessitating emergent surgical intervention. However, a small subset of hemodynamically stable patients can be conservatively managed with favorable outcomes. We present a rare case of a hemodynamically stable adult male who sustained a gunshot injury resulting in an embedded bullet in the heart. The patient was managed non‐operatively after a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, which included echocardiography, computed tomography, coronary angiography, and Holter monitoring. He remained asymptomatic over a 9‐month follow‐up period. The case highlights the feasibility of conservative management in carefully selected patients with penetrating cardiac injuries and emphasizes the importance of individualized imaging‐guided decision‐making. A long‐term surveillance remains essential to identify delayed complications.
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Vijayvergiya et al. (2025) studied this question.
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