As specialists in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery (called cardiothoracic surgery), we provide the following services:

• Coronary Artery Surgery
• Aortic Surgery
  • Ascending Aorta
  • Aortic Arch
  • Descending Thoracic Aorta
  • Abdominal Aorta
    
    
• Heart Valve Repair/Replacement
  • Mitral Valve
  • Aortic Valve
  • Tricuspid Valve
    
    
• VATS Surgery
• Peripheral Vascular Surgery
• Surgery of the Lungs
• Surgery of the Esophagus

Below is a distribution chart detailing 2,000 consecutive cardiac cases performed at SURGXL.

This is a chart of mortality statistics for cardiac surgeries performed at SURGXL.

VATS Surgery

The only method surgeons used in the past to remove masses from the chest cavities of their patients was major open surgery. Now, a recently developed surgical procedure called Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery (VATS) allows surgeons to remove those masses with very small incisions. Surgeons can now operate on masses close to the outside edges of the lung and diagnose pneumonia, infections or tumors of the chest wall. This procedure has also been used to inflate lungs that collapse repeatedly.

A VATS procedure is performed in an operating room of a hospital, under general anesthesia. When VATS is used to evaluate a condition, such as an external rib cage condition, a lighter form of anesthesia is used. 

During the procedure, you lie on your side and a very small incision is made between your seventh and eighth ribs. A very small camera, called a thoracoscope, is inserted into the incision. Your surgeon will then be able to see the work they are doing by watching the video screen in the operating room. At the end of the procedure, your lungs will be re-inflated and all but one of the incisions will be closed. A tube is placed through the remaining incision in order to help drain any leaking air or fluid that collects after the surgery. Most patients need to spend several days post-operatively in the hospital after the surgery.

Patients recover from a VATS surgery quickly because the wounds from the incisions are much smaller than with traditional open surgery. You will have a slight scar. A potential risk is air leakage from a lung that doesn't heal quickly. The decision for further surgery may be determined if a diagnosis of cancer is made.

Peripheral Vascular Surgery

Internal carotid artery stenosis is a disease process that occurs frequently in the presence of coronary artery blockages and is most often attended to by a combined procedure in which Dr. Bell-Thomson will do the off-pump coronary artery bypass and simultaneous internal carotid artery endarterectomy. There are specific indications for this combined procedure that Dr. Bell-Thomson will be able to discuss with you. There are also occasions when it is not necessary to combine carotid artery surgery and coronary bypass and these procedures can be done metachronously.

Surgery of the Lungs

The most common surgical procedure for diseases that occur in the lungs is currently associated with the presence of lung cancer. The majority of patients who present to their physician with the first diagnosis of lung cancer are not surgical candidates because the disease is able to spread insidiously to other organ systems in the body. However, when staging of the lung cancer confirms that it is confined to the lung and has not spread elsewhere, surgical removal of the cancer offers the best possibility of a cure. Dr. Bell-Thomson will be able to discuss the indications, risks, benefits and alternatives to lung cancer surgery with you at length.

Esophagus

Dr. Bell-Thomson was fortunate to be trained by Dr. F. Henry Ellis Jr., at Harvard Medical School, who dedicated most of this professional career to the surgery for motility disturbances of the esophagus and esophageal cancer. Surgery of the esophagus has therefore always been an interest of Dr. Bell-Thomson's. Because of his extensive experience in his field he is able to discuss with you the indications, risks, benefits and alternatives to surgery for Achalasia, Diffuse Esophageal Spasm and Diverticular disease of the esophagus as well as surgical management of Carcinoma of the esophagus.