General Thoracic Surgery

Four three-month rotations are devoted to the general thoracic surgical service at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in the first two years. The program is supported by a NCI designated Cancer Center, Regional Perinatal Center, a Radiology Therapy Unit and three MRI facilities. The educational mission is enhanced by weekly Thoracic Surgery/Radiology Conferences and the Mortality and Morbidity Conferences.

On this service, the thoracic surgery resident carries out the initial evaluation of all in-patients and is responsible for their post-operative care. This service comprises the full range of general thoracic surgery, including esophageal surgery and pediatric general thoracic surgery. Early on the resident assumes responsibility as primary surgeon for general thoracic surgery cases commensurate with experience and technical ability. The resident is also afforded the opportunity to perform a number of flexible bronchoscopy examinations and to do flexible esophagoscopy, both under local anesthesia. During this period, instruction is provided in the intricacies of reading pulmonary function studies.

Cases assigned to the resident are presented weekly at the aforementioned Thoracic Surgery/Radiology Conference. The resident also takes part in the Thoracic Surgery Radiology-Pulmonary Medicine Conference each week. On the fourth Friday of the month, this conference is dedicated to unusual cases presented by a pulmonary pathologist.