Robotic Thoracic Surgery

No two body parts are as essential to life as the heart and lungs. Surgery on them is often complex, challenging, and crucial, and it’s easy for you to be nervous before and after the procedure. Our da Vinci surgical robots can help relieve some of that fear. Assisted by the robot, our surgeons can provide minimally invasive thoracic surgery, avoiding much of the pain and scarring associated with open surgery, minimizing complications, and allowing you to return to your normal life more quickly.

Robotic Thoracic Surgery is performed at Harper University Hospital in Midtown Detroit.

Lung conditions

The lungs are difficult to access when lung surgery is required—they’re relatively large and protected by your ribcage. Our surgeon, aided by a da Vinci robot, can perform a minimally invasive lobectomy (removing part of your lung) with several small incisions between the ribs, avoiding a major and complex procedure and instead resulting in less pain, faster recovery, and fewer complications.

Thymus conditions

The thymus gland is a small gland, but it can cause concern when it isn’t working properly. Using the da Vinci surgical robot, our surgeon can remove the thymus gland through three small incisions on the side of the chest for fewer complications and faster recovery.

Esophageal conditions

Whether you’re experiencing gastric reflux or another esophageal condition, our robot-assisted surgeons can perform procedures with less pain and fewer complications. Aided by the da Vinci robot, our surgeon can operate through several small incisions, resulting in smaller scars and less recovery time.

Other procedures

Other thoracic robotic surgical procedures performed by our surgeons:

Mediastinal lymph node biopsy: Collects a small sample from an unusual growth located in the space between the lungs

Mediastinal mass resection: Removes all or part of an unusual growth in that area

First rib resection: Removes a segment of the first rib, at the top of the chest just below the collarbone—frequently used to relieve compression on nerves, arteries, or veins in that area

Neurogenic tumor resection: Removes all or part of a tumor growing from cells in the nervous system—frequently found in the mediastinal space

Sympathetic nerve interruption: Cuts or blocks nerves that cause pain and narrowed blood vessels in certain diseases.