Surgical treatment of organs residing inside the Thorax or the chest (generally lungs, esophagus, heart, lungs and other organs in the chest) is known as the Cardiothoracic surgery.
Diseases cardiothoracic surgeons treat-
1. Coronary artery disease
2. Aortic Valve Disease.
3. Mitral Valve Disease.
4. Lung Cancer.
5. Esophageal Cancer.
6.Tetralogy of Fallot
7. Atrial Septal Defects.
8. Ventricular Septal Defects.
Thoracic Surgery and Cardiovascular Surgery – The Difference!
The surgical procedures focusing on the heart is termed as Cardiovascular or Cardiac surgery whereas the diseases related to lungs, esophagus, chest wall, and mediastinum are treated under thoracic surgery. Cardiothoracic surgery is the most inclusive term used to describe the specialty, irrespective of a surgeon’s area of focus and expertise and can be used interchangeably with the term thoracic surgery. For example, the patient may have an injury in their chest including their heart, windpipe and lungs. Then one of the two surgeons would typically be called as Cardiothoracic Surgeon.
For Education and Training to be a surgeon roughly four years of medical school, five years of general surgery residency and a few more years of cardiovascular fellowship, in addition, they must give a certain examination to get certification. In some countries, Cardiac and thoracic surgery are separate surgical specialties. Cardiothoracic surgery is a highly demanding role for which you need skill and personal qualities like hand-eye coordination, high perception, ability to work long hour, consistent focusing power. Leadership quality, capacity to remain calm, ability to work under pressure, proficiency to lead and direct a team, cope with unexpectedly changing circumstances and supportive nature towards patient’s family.
We all know that how important Heart and Lungs are and if they will stop functioning the patient will lose consciousness and will die within minutes without medical intervention, here is the place where technology plays a vital role for intervention. There are advances in cardiothoracic surgery like Heart-lung machine, cooling techniques, Replacing aortic valves without surgery, Wireless sensors for severe heart failure.
The surgeons may have their own practice, they perform surgeries in hospitals and other medical facilities. Cardiothoracic surgeons approximately earn a median annual salary of $367,110 in 2016, the salary scale reached from $153,372 – $557,948, and earn bonuses and profit-sharing income. The U.S. BLS “Bureau of Labor Statistics” reported that physicians and surgeons could expect job growth of 14% from 2014-2024, a better-than-average increase.
The job growth directly depends on the interest of doctors or young researchers in the field of cardiovascular surgery and thoracic surgery. Several Medical Conferences or medical Congress are held every year to promote the growth of scientific research in the field of cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, and cardiothoracic surgery. The World Heart and Cardiothoracic Surgery Conference aims in bringing together the leading scientists, researchers, doctors from across the globe to initiate the growth of research amongst young researchers and doctors. The World Heart Summit is going to be held in Singapore from September 10-11, 2019. Abstract Submission deadline has been extended and it’s still going on.
