Cardiotomy for Removal of Bullet Embedded in Right Ventricle, 1949

Warning: contains graphic footage of heart surgery.

A cardiotomy is performed to remove a bullet in a patient’s right ventricle in this silent, color film. Description of the procedure is given through intertitles. A surgeon makes an incision into the patient’s chest. Once the heart is exposed, it is palpated and explored to locate the bullet. Another incision through the ventricle wall exposes the bullet, and it is extracted with forceps. Finally, the patient is sutured.

Passed by the Committee on Medical Motion Pictures, American College of Surgeons, 1949.

By Raymond McNealy, MD, FACS, FICS, Associate Professor of Surgery at Northwestern University Medical School, who also served as Chief Surgeon at Wesley Memorial Hospital, President of Staff at Cook County Hospital, and Professor of Surgery at Cook County Graduate School of Medicine. Produced by Mervin LaRue.