The esophagus is located in the body in a way that complicates surgical access. This tubular organ originates in the neck, passes down into the chest where it lurks behind the heart and is crossed over by the aorta as it courses from right to left when leaving the heart, Read More
Category: Chest Surgery
There are multiple considerations inside his or her head when a thoracic surgeon operates on a patient with lung cancer. I want to focus on two of them: how will the surgeon perform the operation and what part—how much—of the lung will the surgeon remove? A surgeon can gain access Read More
Myasthenia Gravis (MG) means severe muscular weakness and that is exactly what patients experience. We know now that this neurologic disease is due to an autoimmune process in which patients develop antibodies which disrupt activation of muscles. These antibodies accomplish this by attacking the receptor side of the synapse linking Read More
The thoracic outlet is the part of the body surrounded by the curvature of the first rib on each side; this is the base of the neck and the top of the chest. The blood vessels (arteries and veins) and nerves to the arm exit from the chest through this Read More
Lung cancer is a killer. It ends the life of more Americans than any other cancer. Frustratingly for those of us surgeons who do or have treated afflicted patients, the likelihood of developing lung cancer can be significantly diminished. Actively smoking or being exposed passively to the exhaled smoke from Read More
You might think that the esophagus—it starts in the neck but most of it nestles safely within the chest and abdomen, guarded by ribs and a lot of tissue—is safe from being burned. Not so. Just as food has access to the inside of the esophagus so do a variety Read More
Air: all around us. Inside each of us there is air in our lungs. So technically we have air inside our chest; but, as we breathe in and out, it’s contained within our lungs. When air accumulates in the chest but outside the lungs—into what is called the pleural space—bad Read More
As a surgeon, now retired, I, like my colleagues, spent many hours wearing a mask in the operating room. By wearing one I protected my patients who had open chests or abdomens, all susceptible to infection; the mask wasn’t for my benefit. It is an established scientific fact that face Read More
In my last blog I talked about the surgical culture. Now we move to the epicenter of that culture: the operating room. It’s a unique experience: being a surgeon responsible for actions in an operating room. I wouldn’t say it was in any sense superior to other work experiences. I’m Read More
Mesothelioma: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenges A mesothelioma is a malignancy of the tissues that line both the lung surface and the inside of the chest wall. These thin membranes—the parietal pleura lining the chest and the visceral pleura doing the same to each lung—occasionally develop a cancer called mesothelioma. More Read More
