Thoracic Surgery

Cardiothoracic surgery is the field of medicine involved in the surgical treatment of diseases affecting organs inside the thorax (the chest).

Thoracic Surgery typically involves treatment of conditions the lungs (lung disease). Additional conditions may require the surgical expertise of a cardiothoracic surgeon, such as diseases of the esophagus.

Thoracic surgical procedures include performing biopsies of lung tissue or removal of lung lesions. These procedures may be done without opening the chest by using endoscopic video equipment, also know as video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), or may be done by more traditional chest surgery.

In addition to procedures performed on the lungs, thoracic surgeries are performed for some esophageal tumors.