NorthShore’s Division of Thoracic Surgery delivers high quality specialized care for a wide array of thoracic conditions. This includes both benign diseases such as a collapsed lung or problems swallowing and malignant diseases such as lung and esophageal cancer.
Thoracic cancer conditions require a multipronged approach. Our multidisciplinary team of thoracic surgeons, medical oncologists, pulmonologists, radiologists, radiation oncologists and other specialists meet weekly at tumor boards, where we work in tandem to discuss each patient’s case. Our team of thoracic surgeons partner with medical oncologists in the Kellogg Cancer Center to develop coordinated treatment plans that provide each cancer patient the very best personalized care.
Physician Expertise
Our team of surgical specialists focus exclusively on non-cardiac thoracic surgery and have extensive experience in treating patients with lung, esophagus, chest wall, and mediastinal diseases. Our focus on thoracic surgery ensures that our patients receive leading-edge surgical approaches from knowledgeable experts in the field.
Our board-certified thoracic surgeons have more than a decade of experience performing innovative minimally invasive techniques. The depth and breadth of our surgical expertise allows us to provide a range of surgical options to optimize outcomes for each and every patient.
Minimally Invasive Techniques
Less pain, faster recovery and smaller incisions have made advanced minimally invasive procedures the surgical treatment of choice for many conditions. At NorthShore, our thoracic surgeons have one of the largest experiences in the wider Chicago region providing robotic assisted thoracoscopic surgery in place of traditional open surgery and traditional video assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Using thin surgical instruments, our surgical team can gain access to the lungs, esophagus and other areas of the chest with the least amount of tissue damage possible. The robotic assistance allows even greater precision that standard VATS, allowing the surgeon a full 3-Dimensional view of the chest and precision controls of the instruments that have even more dexterity than the human hand. We routinely use these techniques for:
More than 95 percent of NorthShore’s major lung and esophageal surgeries are performed using less invasive techniques. We treat nearly all early stage lung cancer cases with robotic assistance compared with the national average that is significantly lower. The typical hospital stay for a patient undergoing minimally invasive at NorthShore is also considerably shorter than the national average.
Research & Innovation
NorthShore's Division of Thoracic Surgery plays an important role in enhancing patient care through clinical research and innovation. We participate in local and national multidisciplinary clinical trials, offering the latest treatments to our patients. An early advocate of lung cancer screening, NorthShore runs a program modeled after the landmark study that proved that low dose CT scanning was an effective and potentially lifesaving screening tool in high-risk patients.
Committed to improving the safety and quality of surgical care, we develop initiatives to ensure the best outcomes for those who entrust us with their care. Leaders in the field, our specialists contribute to research, academic and advocacy efforts in Illinois and across the country to translate promising findings that ultimately benefit our community.