Modalities

Surgical Treatments

Minimally Invasive Surgery

When surgery is necessary for lung cancer patients, Martha Jefferson's thoracic surgery team offers some of the most innovative surgery techniques available in the nation. Our surgeons use smaller incisions that are less painful and spare surrounding muscle to make recovery easier. Technologic advances in instrumentation and video surgery are used so that minimally invasive surgery is possible, even when the surgeons perform major resections.

One such innovation is Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS), which can be used for diagnostic and treatment procedures. Using VATS, surgeries that would have required much more invasive techniques, now are performed using two to three small incisions and tasks such as rib-spreading are not necessary. Tumors in high-risk patients previously deemed inoperable with conventional methods may be amenable to these minimally invasive techniques.