The hospital stay for thoracotomy is 5 to 7 days.
After thoracic surgery you will stay in the hospital for 5 days to 7 days to recover.
The first 24 hours of the hospital stay after thoracic surgery is in the intensive care unit or ICU and you will have a temporary breathing tube and 1 to 2 chest tubes which will then be removed in the first few days or so.
Then after the ICU or intensive care unit stay you will be moved to a regular room.
You can eat normally after thoracic surgery and you can eat any foods you did before you have the thoracic surgery.
After thoracic surgery you should eat a balanced diet with lots of protein and calories to help you heal after the thoracic surgery.
The symptoms after thoracic surgery are chest pain and a swollen chest as well as tiredness and fatigue which can last for up to 6 weeks to 8 weeks after the thoracic surgery.
After thoracic surgery it's best to sleep in an upright position at first as it can be painful to sleep on your side although it will not hurt your incisions or heart.
You can sleep in any position that is comfortable to you though after thoracic surgery although sleeping in the upright position is best.
You would be referred to a thoracic surgeon for a variety of reasons such as for chest pain, heart conditions, injuries or accidents that damage the chest area, lung issues, lung damage, growth or diseases such as cancer including lung cancer etc.
Other reasons you would be referred to a thoracic surgeon are perform diagnostic tests such as exercise testing (oxygen consumption study) esophageal ultrasound, endoscopy, endobronchial ultrasound, chest x ray, bronchoscopy and a bronchoalveolar lavage.
The part of the body that is thoracic is the thorax or chest area which includes the lungs, esophagus, mediastinum, diaphragm and trachea.
The organs that are involved in thoracic surgery are the esophagus, lungs and the heart.
Some examples of thoracic surgery are lung transplant or removal of parts of the lung that are affected by cancer, heart transplants, and coronary artery bypass surgery.
Thoracic surgery is high risk although it's also a very safe procedure for most people.
There are some risks associated with thoracic surgery which include possible bleeding, air leakage from your lungs and pain abnormal heartbeats and infection.
The reason thoracic surgery is painful is because of the damage to the intercostal nerves and muscles between the ribs.
The post-thoracotomy pain lingers two months or more after the incision has healed and it can affect up to 50 percent of people who receive a chest incision.
The mortality rate of thoracic surgery is between 0.6% and 1.3%
The two major postoperative complications of thoracic surgery are pulmonary embolism and deep venous thrombosis which are potentially fatal complications that can occur after thoracic surgery.
The most common type of thoracic surgery is coronary artery bypass grafting.
The major thoracic surgeries are lobectomy and coronary artery bypass grafting also called CABG.
The lobectomy is the removal of part of your lung.
The four major thoracic organs are the lungs, heart, esophagus and trachea.
The other major thoracic organ is the thymus.
Thoracic doctors treat conditions such as Emphysema, Gastroesophageal reflux disease or GERD, Chest reconstruction, Benign (non cancerous) lung tumors and lung diseases, heart transplants and heart lesions which includes valve disorders and coronary artery disease.
A person may need thoracic surgery for a variety of reasons such as for injuries or accidents that damage the chest area.
Some people have a growth or disease such as cancer and other people are born with conditions that require surgery to improve how their body works or quality of life.
The difference between a thoracotomy and a thoracoscopy is that a thoracotomy is an open chest procedure to gain access into the pleural space of the chest.
The thoracotomy is done to gain access to the thoracic organs and most commonly the heart, esophagus and lungs or to gain access to the thoracic aorta or the anterior spine.
A thoracoscopy on the other hand is a medical procedure that involves internal examination, biopsy and/or resection/drainage of disease or masses within the pleural cavity, usually with video assistance.
Thoracoscopy may be performed either under general anesthesia or under sedation with local anesthetic.
A thoracoscopy is not all that risky and is a very safe procedure.
However there are some risks that come with a thoracoscopy which include pneumonia and bleeding.
The disadvantages of thoracoscopy are the loss of tactile sensation and the cost of procedural equipment.
Other disadvantages of thoracoscopy include absolute contraindications that include a fused lung, markedly unstable patient, cardiac arrest or shock and a person who is unable to tolerate complete or partial unilateral collapse of your lung.
A thoracoscopy is not a major surgery and instead the thoracoscopy is a minor and minimally invasive surgery.
The thoracotomy surgery takes around 45 minutes to complete from start to finish.
After a thoracoscopy you will stay in the hospital for 1 to 4 days.
If you have any chest tubes then you may need to stay in the hospital until the chest tubes are removed.
And after the thoracoscopy a nurse or a therapist will help you get up and walk soon after the thoracoscopy which will keep your blood moving and will help improve the healing.
It takes between 1 week to 2 weeks to recover from a thoracoscopy and the doctor will take the stitches or staples out within 1 to 2 weeks after the thoracoscopy.
You will need to take it easy for 1 to 2 weeks as you recover from the thoracoscopy.
A thoracoscopy is not a major surgery and instead a thoracoscopy is a minimally invasive surgery which uses smaller cuts than traditional open surgery.
The survival rate of a thoracoscopy is 97 percent and the mortality rate for a thoracoscopy is 0.3 percent.
You would need a thoracoscopy to look at an abnormal area seen on an imaging test (such as a chest x-ray or CT scan).
You may also need a thoracoscopy to take biopsy samples of lymph nodes, abnormal lung tissue, the chest wall or the lining of your lung.
A thoracoscopy is most commonly used in people with lung cancer and mesothelioma.
A thoracoscopy is not painful at all because you'll be given anesthesia before the thoracoscopy procedure.
However after the thoracoscopy you may feel some pain at the incisions which you can take some pain medicine for.
The position that a patient is in for a thoracoscopy is in the lateral decubitus position with the involved side facing up.
The length of time it takes to do a thoracoscopy is around 45 minutes and involves making a hole in the chest wall and then inserting a telescope into the hole.
The doctor will also inject a local anesthetic into the area where they will make the hole and will use an instrument called an introducer to insert the thoracoscopy telescope into the hole.
The Thoracoscopy is done in order to look at an abnormal area seen on an imaging test (such as a chest x-ray or CT scan).