Introduction
Cardiac wounds have been described from many centuries as the earliest known appeared in Homer’s iliad. To date stab wounds to the heart remain a life-threatening injury. Their management is still highly challenging and requires immediate care and transfer to a surgical atmosphere. Even nowadays despite medicalized helicopters, ambulances and presence of well distributed hospitals on our territory, a cardiac penetrating wound is often fatal. Moreover it is only 123 years ago that the first successful repair of a cardiac wound was reported, passing through a long history of mysticism and medical criticism. Herein we report a brief overview of the care of cardiac penetrating wounds, illustrating also the birth of cardiac surgery and how dogma in medicine should be criticized.