Thoracic Surgery

Primary spontaneous pneumothorax, or the condition where a lung drops due to a release of air, is a serious condition and needs to be dealt with as an emergency in the closest A&E.  If this occurs more than once on a particular side then we can offer a surgical procedure using an endoscopic (key hole) approach to stick the lung to the chest wall to prevent further collapse.  This procedure is called a pleurectomy and is occasionally combined with a bullectomy (excision of an area of weakness in the lung called a bulla).

Lung cancer is sadly the most common form of cancer affecting women and men.

Traditionally patients presented with a cough and/or symptoms related to the growth and often the cancer had spread too far and surgery was not an option.  Now increasingly, with GP’s requesting earlier CXR’s and with the government funded lung cancer screening program underway, more patients are being identified with early lung tumours.