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General Thoracic Surgery |
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General Thoracic Surgery (GTS) deals with all aspects of chest surgery not involving the heart and aorta. This encompasses surgical conditions of the chest wall, lungs, pleura, diaphragm and contents of the mediastinum, which includes the trachea, esophagus, thymus gland and pericardium. GTS includes consultative, diagnostic, and therapeutic roles of benign and malignant conditions of the chest, as well as thoracic organ transplantation. Much of the effort of a general thoracic service is in the treatment of malignancies of the chest, primarily that of the lungs and esophagus. Lung cancer is by far the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and our surgeons may be involved in many aspects of the diagnosis and treatment of this prevalent problem.
The majority of the thoracic oncology cases are approached in a
multi-disciplinary fashion, with consideration of each case by
the thoracic surgeon and a group of expert physicians in
radiology, pathology, pulmonary medicine, and specialists in the
use of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This section has
implemented the use of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS)
for certain diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of the pleura
and lungs, as well as anatomic lobectomy for cure of early-stage
lung cancer. |