Thoracic Surgery

Course Director           Benjamin D. Kozower, M.D.

Faculty                         Gorav Ailawadi, M.D.

                                     David Jones, M.D.

                                     Christine Lau, M.D.

 

The General Thoracic Surgical (GTS) service consists of four residents: two thoracic surgery fellows, a PGY III categorical general surgery (GS) resident, and one intern (categorical and/or preliminary GS, anesthesiology, otolaryngology, neurosurgery, emergency medicine). There is also one full time advanced practice Nurse practitioner who helps coordinate inpatient care, as well as two nurse coordinators who help coordinate outpatient care.  We also have one to two medical students rotating on our service the majority of the time.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of a thoracic surgery rotation all medical students are expected to be able to:  

  1. Describe the staging and classification of lung cancer.
  2. Describe the staging and classification of esophageal cancer.
  3. Discuss the multidisciplinary approach to treating thoracic malignancies.
  4. Discuss the treatment of pleural space problems including pneumothoraces, hemothoraces, empyema, and malignant pleural effusions.
  5. Develop an understanding of the pathophysiology of benign esophageal diseases such as achalasia, paraesophageal hernias, and gastroesophageal reflux disease, and the diagnostic studies that are used to evaluate patients as well as the surgical therapies.
  6. Discuss the co-morbid conditions in patients undergoing thoracic operations and how to appropriately stratify their operative risk
  7. Discuss the interpretation of pulmonary function studies, x-rays, etc.

Responsibilities

Medical students should participate in all inpatient and outpatient clinical and educational activities while on this service. Specifically students should:                                                           

  1. Participate in the performance of operative cases according to his/her abilities and always with attending presence.  Students should check with the chief fellow to ensure that they are assigned operative cases ahead of time.
  2. Attend the weekly Thoracic Surgery outpatient clinic. 
  3. Evaluate pre- and post-operative patients in conjunction with the attending and residents.
  4. Participate in the didactic weekly teaching conference (Monday morning at 0630 hours) as well as attend the TCV ICU teaching conference held 8:15-9:00 am Mon, Tue, Thurs, Fri.
  5. Students should follow between 3-5 patients at all times.  These can be preoperative or postoperative patients.  Students should present these patients on morning rounds and observe any studies performed on them that they have not seen before (CT guided lung biopysy, upper GI/barium swallow, etc.).