The Thoracic (Lung) Surgery Program at Sharp Memorial Hospital provides specialized surgical treatment for disorders of the organs of the chest, particularly the lungs and esophagus.

Why choose Sharp Memorial's Thoracic (Lung) Surgery Program?

• Surgeons use minimally invasive surgical techniques whenever possible, including video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS)
• Using VATS results in less pain for the patient, faster recovery time, smaller scar size and fewer complications than traditional surgery

How lung surgery works.

With this minimally invasive surgical procedure, a video scope is introduced into the chest through a port, which is just a few millimeters in length.

Because it can offer patients significant advantages over open surgery, many surgeons believe that VATS will one day be used in the majority of thoracic procedures.

Uses of VATS.

While not every patient is a candidate, VATS can be used for:

• Esophageal disease
  • Esophageal achalasia (a thickening of the muscle in the esophagus, which causes difficulty in swallowing)
  • Removal of esophageal cancer
• Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating)
  • Hyperhidrosis of the hands can be surgically corrected by destroying or removing the sympathetic nerve cells responsible for this disorder
• Lung disease
  • Diagnose and treat fluid around the lung
  • Diagnose and treat mediastinal tumors (tumors in the area between the lungs)
  • Diagnose, or stage, lung cancer
  • Reduce lung volume in emphysema patients
  • Treat blebs (small blister or pustule) on the lung which can lead to a collapsed lung
  • Treat lung cancer in patients who cannot tolerate open surgery
• Pericardial disease
  • Biopsy or partial removal of the pericardial sac that surrounds the heart

If a patient is not a candidate for VATS, our surgeons can perform a traditional thoracotomy, which involves a standard incision on the back side of the chest through the ribs.

Sharp Memorial's Thoracic (Lung) Surgery team.

The Thoracic Surgery Program collaborates closely with staff in pulmonary medicine, gastroenterology, medical and radiation oncology, neurology and cardiovascular surgery. Our program is committed to providing the highest-quality, evidence-based program in a caring, patient-friendly environment.

And with our convenient Find a doctor tool, we make choosing the right thoracic surgeon easy.