What You Need to Know as a Thoracic Surgery Patient

Your choice of surgeon is extremely important. A thoracic surgeon is a very different type of doctor from a cardiac surgeon who specializes in surgery of the heart. Sometimes general surgeons attempt to do thoracic surgery. As you may expect, the benefits of having your surgery performed by a dedicated and board certified thoracic surgeon are obvious. Dedicated thoracic surgeons are also quite rare. There are only about 250 dedicated pure thoracic surgeons in the United States; contrast this with about 4000 heart surgeons, 45,000 general surgeons and you can begin to see the level of specialization required to be a dedicated thoracic surgeon. In the United States, Dr. Tishko is a leader in the field of thoracic surgery and the inventor of single incision VATS.

A thoracic surgeon spends years of training and research to become an expert on understanding what is lung cancer, what causes lung cancer, what are the first symptoms of lung cancer and what are the effects of lung cancer. Decisions regarding the best treatment options are often quite complex. As an expert with extensive experience having performed over 7000 operations, Dr. Tishko’s insight is excellent. Dr. Tishko is the director of the lung cancer screening program which has been exceptionally effective at finding and treating long cancer in its earliest stages to allow the best long term results.

When considering thoracic surgery, you should feel comfortable asking your surgeon very specific questions including:

• Are you board certified in thoracic surgery?
• Are you a dedicated pure thoracic surgeon?
• Do you perform other types of surgeries?
• What percent of your practice is pure thoracic surgery?

Dr. Tishko welcomes all your questions. He believes the more you know, the better you do. He invites you to browse through this website and learn more about our complete approach to your care.