Surgical Procedures

Robotic Thoracoscopic Surgery

The Columbia team has performed several advanced thoracoscopic procedures with robotic assistance, including pulmonary lobectomy (removal of a lobe of the lung) for lung cancer, mediastinal mass resection (removal of a mass in the central chest), chest wall tumor resection, esophagectomy (surgery of the esophagus), thymectomy (removal of the thymus), and phrenic nerve pacemaker insertion.

Thoracic procedures that may particularly benefit from this technology include: minimally invasive pulmonary lobectomy, thymectomy, and esophagectomy, which are currently performed as open approaches in the majority of centers. Drs. Sonett, Gorenstein, and Ginsburg are now performing these procedures robotically in patients desiring minimally invasive thoracic procedures.