general thoracic surgery operations

[PostCall]

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on my surgery rotation i did 2 weeks of subspecialty in CT surgery. mostly they did cabg and valves. i didn't experience any general thoracic surgery and want to hear how it is compared to cardiac surgery. the cardiac operations were very intricate especially the anastomosis of the coronary vessels. is thoracic surgery as intricate or is it more like general surgery where you're not operating with loupes almost the whole time?

 

[ArcherM2]

Less loupes, more headlamps. From my experience, general thoracic surgery does minimal small anastomotic requiring loupes. General thoracic cases range from open abdominal procedures (paraesophageal hernia repairs, first part of an esophagectomy), laparoscopic abdominal procedures (nissen, d'or, toupee fundoplications), VATS and thoracotomies for lung cancer and mediastinoscopy for staging. I suppose there may be some instances where loupes may be required (lung transplant, bronchial/tracheal injury repairs), I'm sure someone would be able to attest to those situations. Hope that helped.

 

[PostCall]

do general thoracic surgeons still do cardiac cases (cabg, valves) or is there enough thoracic volume that they do exclusively non-cardiac cases?

 

[jc7721]

Bronchoscopy
Pulmonary dilatation
Pulmonary stents
Mediastinoscopy
Pulmonary resections for cancer/benign disease/pleural disease (open/vats lobectomy, pneumoectomy, segmentectomy)
Diaphragm plication/reconstruction
Decortications
Lung volume reduction surgery
Bullectomy
Tracheal resections/reconstructions
Thymectomy
Esophagectomy
Esophagoscopy
Esophageal dilation
Thoracic sympathectomy
Chest wall reconstruction
Lung transplant
Pulmonary endarterectomy
Mediastinal tumor resection
Thoracic trauma (chest wall, esophagus, diaphragm)
Chest tubes
Anti-reflux

At many (?most) academic medical centers thoracic surgeons do not do cardiac surg and vice versa for the cardiac people. In the community it's a mix. If you want to get a feel for, but not a comprehensive list of, cardiothoracic jobs, go to www.ctsnet.org, click 'job center' on the left then 'search for a job', pick 'united states' from the drop down menu and then whatever job category you want to see.