Cardiothoracic Surgery in North Central Pa.

Explore Treatment Options for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Pennsylvania

At UPMC’s Heart and Vascular Institute, we provide surgical treatment options for patients with a wide range of heart and lung-related conditions. After surgery, patients are cared for in a specialized 11-bed cardiovascular surgical unit where they remain during their entire stay.

Essential to the Institute is our team of cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiologists and nurses, who combined, have performed thousands of complex heart and lung surgeries. To learn more about cardiothoracic surgery in Williamsport, Pa. Find a Provider at UPMC.

Types of Cardiothoracic Surgery We Offer at UPMC

Cardiothoracic surgeries we perform in Williamsport:

• Coronary artery bypass surgery. Used to treat coronary artery disease, this procedure utilizes blood vessels from other areas that are grafted to the artery to restore blood flow.
• Valve replacement and repair surgery. A treatment option for heart disease, especially heart valve disease, this is a noninvasive procedure to maintain the patient's own mitral valve architecture when possible.
• Mediastinoscopy. Performed to examine the inside of the upper chest, this procedure involves a small incision and thin scope to detect problems and diagnose conditions and diseases of the lungs.
• Lung resection surgery. This is a surgical procedure to remove lung tumors or diseases.
• Robotic assisted surgery. Robotic-assisted heart surgery, also called closed-chest heart surgery, is a type of minimally invasive heart surgery performed by a cardiac surgeon.

Robotic Assisted Surgery

The da Vinci® Surgical System provides an alternative to both traditional open and conventional laparoscopic surgery, putting the doctor’s hands at the controls of a state-of-the-art robotic platform. The da Vinci System enables our doctors to perform even the most complex and delicate procedures through very small incisions with unmatched precision.

Benefits to the patient from surgery include a shorter length of recovery time. Because the operation is performed laparoscopically, it is less invasive and requires small punctures rather than a large incision, meaning less time is required to heal. Most patients return to normal activity in two to three weeks instead of the six to eight weeks common to standard open surgery.

Other types of procedures we can perform robotically include:

• Gynecologic surgery
• Heart surgery
• Urologic surgery
• General surgery

Robotic Assisted Cardiothoracic Surgery

Dr. Lazar performs the following procedures using the da Vinci® surgical system:

• Coronary Artery Bypass
• Removal of cardiac and lung tumors
• Mediastinal tumor surgery
• Lung resection
• Thymectomy (thymus gland removal)
• Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) repair
• Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) repair

What are the benefits of robotically-assisted heart surgery?

• Smaller incisions with minimal scarring
• Less trauma to the patient, including less pain
• Shorter hospital stay (usually three to four days)
• Decreased use of pain medications
• Less bleeding
• Decreased risk of infection
• Shorter recovery and quicker return to daily and professional activities: The patient can resume normal activities and work as soon as he or she feels up to it; there are no specific activity restrictions after robotically-assisted surgery

Why Cardiothoracic Surgery Is Performed

Your doctor may recommend cardiothoracic surgery as a treatment option for the following conditions:

• Aortic aneurysm
• Aortic stenosis
• Arrhythmia
• Atrial septal defect
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Congenital heart defects
• Congestive heart failure
• Coronary artery disease
• Deep vein thrombosis

UPMC's Heart and Vascular Institute performs a range of cardiothoracic surgeries in Williamsport and the surrounding areas of Pa.