For Patients and Visitors
What is the Service?
Thoracic Surgery deals with operations for diseases and problems of the chest. While lung cancer forms a major bulk of the work load, thoracic surgeons also treat other tumours of the chest and the chest wall and non-cancerous conditions. Importantly, surgical remedy for non-cancerous problems which include infections, chest injuries, pneumothorax and congenital problems are other services provided by Thoracic Surgery
What can I expect from the service?
The Thoracic Surgical service provides both inpatient and outpatient services. Once weekly Thoracic Surgery clinic caters for patients who have been referred to the service from GPs and also internally. We provide also a round the clock emergency coverage for patients who present to the Northern Emergency Department.
The unit also runs on an average two operative sessions weekly and conducts a variety of procedures pertaining to Thoracic Surgery.
What do I bring/need for my appointment?
Every time you come to hospital for a test, day procedure, appointment or treatment, you should bring:
- Medicare card
- Health Care card (if you have one)
- Concession card (if you have one)
- Adverse drug alert card (if you have one)
- Medications you are currently taking, including any that you have bought without a prescription
- X-ray films, scans, ultrasounds or any other test results you have which are related to your procedure
- Referral from your doctor (if you have a copy)
- Private health insurance card (if you want to use it)
Contact us
Phone: 8405 8335
Email: SpecialistClinics@nh.org.au
To enquire about your referral and other inquiries:
Please direct inquiries to ThoracicEnquiries@nh.org.au
For Health Professionals
Service Overview
The Thoracic Surgical service at Northern Health has been providing standard care to the community in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne for many years. With recent strengthening of the Thoracic Surgical team, this service has now grown to be able to provide all manner of Thoracic surgical service to our community. With the establishment and successful running of the lung cancer management stream, Northern Health now has the capacity of providing a one stop care for complete investigation and treatment of different types of thoracic cancers.
With Multi-Disciplinary approach, the Thoracic surgical service offers a complete and holistic management to investigation and treatment of both malignant and non-malignant lung disease. Care of patients with chest trauma is another important part of the Thoracic surgery portfolio and the unit prides itself in providing the standard of care to patients with rib fractures in close collaboration with our Acute pain services and Allied health partners.
The Thoracic Surgical service at Northern health endeavours to provide state of the art diagnostic and treatment services while keeping the patients and their needs and choices front and centre in everything that we do. The stress is upon keeping the practice in stride with the recent developments in the field but also upon keeping the service very accessible and timely.
Some prominent services rendered routinely by the Thoracic surgical unit at Northern Health are:
Lung cancer diagnosis and treatment:
- Diagnostic procedures including bronchoscopy
- Mediastinoscopy to evaluate mediastinal lymphadenopathy and lung cancer staging
- Lung cancer resection with minimally invasive surgical techniques like Video Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) and Uni-portal VATS.
- Palliative procedures for lung cancer including therapeutic bronchoscopy
Bullous Lung Disease (Lung Volume Reduction Surgery)
Management of pleural diseases:
- VATS pleural biopsy for undiagnosed effusions
- VATS pleurodesis for malignant pleural effusions
- VATS bullectomy and pleurodesis for recurrent pneumothorax.
- Including Mesothelioma Management
Management of chest wall trauma, tumours and deformities:
- Rib fracture management including rib fixation when indicated
- Surgery for chest wall tumour resections
- Surgery for chest wall deformities especially Pectus excavatum
Diagnosis and management of mediastinal masses.
- Lung masses and suspected lung cancers
- Mediastinal lesions and significant lymphadenopathy requiring biopsy
- Chest wall lesions and tumours
- Pleural masses, empyema,
Thoracoscopic sympathectomy
How to Refer:
Referrals via E-triage – Specialty: Thoracic Surgery
Urgent referrals can be discussed by calling switch on 8405 8000 and requesting the Thoracic Surgery Registrar
Referral must include:
Relevant investigation results including any pathology, CT and X-rays. All patients must have a CT organised prior to referral.
Director/Head of Unit:
Dr. Bibhiusal Thapa https://www.surgeons.org/profile/dr-bibhusal-thapa
Consultants
Dr. Krishna Bhagwat https://www.surgeons.org/en/Profile/krishna-bhagwat
Mr. Sergei Mitnovetski
Enquiries:
Please direct inquiries to ThoracicEnquiries@nh.org.au
