Washington ? A U.S. military doctor removed a live round of ammunition from the head of an Afghan soldier in an unusual and harrowing surgery.

Doctors say a 14.5 millimeter unexploded round — more than 2 inches long — was removed from the scalp of an Afghan National Army soldier at the Bagram Air Field hospital last month.

When the Afghan soldier, in his 20s, arrived at the base, doctors thought it was shrapnel or the spent end of some sort of round, said Lt. Col. Anthony Terreri, a radiologist deployed from Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

But as he reviewed a CAT scan of the soldier, he realized it was a much bigger problem, according to an Air Force news release this week on the case.

He immediately went to inform neurosurgeon Maj. John Bini, also of Lackland. Bini had the operating room evacuated; the surrounding hallways were secured, and he and anesthesiologist, Maj. Jeffrey Rengel, put on body armor for the surgery.