Thoracic Surgery

General Information

Thoracic surgery is now offered at Mercy as a minimally invasive procedure. The surgery utilizes a video-assisted technique during which the surgeon can look inside the chest cavity. The surgeon can then use special instrumentation to remove tumors or masses for biopsy.

In addition to providing surgeons with a less invasive way to remove gall bladders and lung tumors, the video-assisted procedure is useful for diagnosing certain types of pneumonia and infections or tumors of the chest wall. Surgeons can also use the procedure to re-expand lungs that repeatedly collapse.

Many of our surgeries today are done with minimally invasive techniques. See "Minimally Invasive Techniques" for more information.