TY - JOUR T1 - Left ventricular perforation from a dislodged needle migrating via a pulmonary artery branch in an intravenous drug user JF - BMJ Case Reports JO - BMJ Case Reports DO - 10.1136/bcr-2020-237333 VL - 14 IS - 1 SP - e237333 AU - Sawan Waidyanatha AU - Sachin Sekhsaria Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/1/e237333.abstract N2 - Embolised needles causing injury to the right heart and cardiac tamponade has been reported before in intravenous drug users, but to our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a needle migrating via the pulmonary arterial system to cause perforation of the left ventricle. Appropriate utilisation of imaging modalities such as plain X-ray and point-of-care focused cardiac ultrasound can be vital and life-saving in the emergency setting, and the value of gated multidetector CT as a powerful tool for imaging moving structures is highlighted. ER -