What is Thoracic Surgery?

General Thoracic Surgery is a speciality focused on the treatment of diseases affecting organs in the thorax, excluding the heart and great vessels which are treated by Cardiac Surgery.

The Thorax is located between the neck and abdomen, which is separated by the diaphragm. Organs treated by Thoracic Surgeons are the lungs, chest wall, airways (trachea and bronchus), oesophagus, mediastinum and diaphragm.

Some of the diseases affecting these organs can be medically treated and managed. In these cases, patients are not treated by Thoracic Surgeons.

However, many pathologies do benefit from surgical treatment, some of these pathologies include:

• Lung nodules (Lung cancer, Pulmonary metastasis, Benign nodules...)

• Emphysema

• Some pulmonary infections (Hydatidosis, Tuberculosis, Lung abscesses, Bronchiectasis ...)

• Pleura diseases (Pleural effusion, Empyema, Pneumothorax, Pleural tumors ...)

• Airway diseases (Stenosis, Tumors ...)

• Chest wall and diaphragm diseases (Tumors, malformations such as Pectus excavatum and Carinatum,  Thoracic outlet syndrome, Trauma...)

• Oesophagus (malignacies and benign conditions like Cysts, Perforations...)

• Other mediastinal diseases (Thymic conditions, Endothoracic thyroid, Cysts...)