If there’s anything mob movies have taught us is that if someone is shot, you must dig that bullet out.  Usually the recipient of this torture grits his teeth, sweats a little, curses a lot, and toughs it out.  In real life, most bullets do not have to be removed.  They are harmless left in place.  The body walls the bullet off.  Since I hang around people who are shot a lot, I have come up with a handy list of the times when a bullet needs to be removed:

1.  A bullet in a joint space or the globe of the eye ( this usually comes out with the eye!).

2.  A bullet IN or near a large blood vessel (risk of traveling in the vessel to the heart and lungs or compromising blood flow to surrounding tissues).

3.  Pressing on a nerve and causing pain.

4.  In an abscess ( pus collection).

5.  Bullet that has gone through the colon and is resting in muscle or bone ( it’s contaminated with poop)

Some bullets can work their way out slowly to the skin and then they can be removed easily.

So, the next time you watch a bullet being dug out of an appendage in a movie, snort condescendingly and roll your eyes in disgust.  I do.