Thoracic

Glens Falls Hospital utilizes cutting-edge technology to provide surgical care for a broad spectrum of benign and malignant diseases involving the lungs, mediastinum, chest wall and esophagus.

Our services and treatments cover:

Lung Cancer

Our services range from initial diagnosis and staging with thoracoscopy, navigational bronchoscopy, endoscopic ultrasound-guided biopsies and mediastinoscopy, to curative lung resections, to palliative procedures such as drainage and pleurodesis of malignant pleural effusions.

As is the case with most malignancies treated today, a multidisciplinary approach to lung cancer is required. We work closely with the medical and radiation oncologists at the C.R. Wood Cancer Center at Glens Falls Hospital and in the community.

Most lung resections are performed with a video-assisted approach. This results in less post-operative pain, a reduced hospital stay, and a faster recovery.

Minimally invasive, video-assisted thoracic surgery is also ideally suited to the diagnosis and treatment of pleural diseases, both benign and malignant.

Malignant Pleural Effusion

Advanced lung and breast cancers frequently spread to the pleural surface, causing accumulation of large pleural effusions which result in shortness of breath. These effusions can be drained, a pleural biopsy obtained and pleurodesis accomplished thoracoscopically. For those patients with a limited life expectancy, or when the lung will not expand to allow pleurodesis, a pleural catheter can be placed with local anesthetic, easing their shortness of breath and allowing outpatient management.

Empyema / Parapneumonic Pleural Effusions

Community-acquired pneumonias occasionally cause an inflammatory pleural reaction, with the accumulation of a parapneumonic pleural effusion. With early, effective antibiotic treatment, these fluid collections are usually not infected. However, being inflammatory in nature, they rapidly become loculated, limiting the effectiveness of simple chest tube drainage. These fluid collections can often be drained and debrided thoracoscopically, preventing lung entrapment and long-term restrictive lung disease.

Spontaneous Pneumothorax

Uncomplicated spontaneous pneumothoraces can almost always be managed with simple chest tube or pleural catheter drainage. This common condition is frequently recurrent and the likelihood of repeated episodes increases with each recurrence. The cause of recurrent spontaneous pneumothoraces is almost always a rupture of the pleural blebs at the lung apex. Recurrent episodes can usually be treated by thoracosopic staple resection of these blebs with a post-operative recurrence rate of less than 5%.

Mediastinal Disease

Mediastinal lymphadenopathy is extremely common and can present a broad differential diagnosis ranging from benign disease such as sarcoidosis to malignant diseases such as locally advanced lung cancer or lymphoma. Most mediastinal lymph node biopsies can be performed with endobronchial ultrasound guided needle biopsies.This is a minimally invasive day surgery procedure.