[Penetrating injury of the right ventricle by nail gun; report of a case].

A 43-year-old man accidentally shot himself with a nail gun. He was seen in the other hospital. Chest computed tomography showed nail penetrating the thorax, and a small amount of pericardial effusion. He was transferred to our hospital and underwent an operation on emergency. After sternotomy and pericardiotomy, the nail was found to reach the right ventricle, and was almost pulled out. The nail was removed and the right ventricle was repaired with felt 4-0 mattress sutures. His postoperative course was uneventful and discharged 7 days after the accident. Because penetrating cardiac injuries often cause cardiac tamponade, prompt diagnosis and emergency surgical repair are required. We report a case of nail penetration injury of the right ventricle with a review of the pertinent literature.