Residents on the thoracic surgical service develop skills in diagnosing and managing a spectrum of benign and malignant problems of the lung, mediastinum, pleural cavity, chest wall and esophagus. Clinical training focuses on preoperative evaluation, postoperative management and surgical techniques related to care of the thoracic patient. Six senior thoracic surgeons and three cardiothoracic residents make up the service.

Residents have the opportunity to become proficient in a variety of procedures, including thoracoscopy, bronchoscopy, tube thoracostomy, pulmonary resection, mediastinal-tumor removal, pacemaker insertion, multimodality approaches to esophageal cancer and thoracic trauma management. Thoracic surgery at the Wilmington Veterans Administration Hospital further enhances residents’ training.

Residents dedicate two months of their fourth year to thoracic surgery. Fourth-year residents are responsible for patients’ preoperative evaluations and postoperative management. Under an attending’s or fellow’s supervision, these residents also perform all thoracic surgery. This intensive rotation provides the resident with an in-depth experience in all aspects of thoracic surgery.

To supplement the clinical work, Jefferson offers three weekly interdisciplinary conferences, where the staff discusses lung cancer and medical-surgical pulmonary topics. At each conference, attendees review difficult diagnostic problems and therapeutic-management issues from the various specialty viewpoints – surgical, medical, radiologic and oncologic.