Cardiothoracic Surgery

Medical Specialists in this area are called

Cardiothoracic Surgeons

(sometimes referred to as

Heart Surgeons

,

Cardiac Surgeons

or

Thoracic Surgeons

). There are two main types of Cardiothoracic surgery.

Cardiac surgery

involves the heart and large blood vessels (arteries and veins) around it, and thoracic surgery (

Open Heart Surgery

) involving the lungs and trachea, the oesophagus, the diaphragm and chest wall. They may be separate surgical specialties or combined as cardiothoracic surgery. Generally, this surgery covers treatment of conditions of the heart (

heart disease

) and lungs (

lung disease

).