Cardiothoracic Surgery

General surgeons perform the majority of lung resections for cancer in the United States, yet lung cancer resections performed by thoracic surgeons had significantly lower in-hospital mortality rates than did those performed by general surgeons and cardiac surgeons, according to results of a large analysis of national hospital data.

A 68–year–old man previously diagnosed with a "heart-murmur," but otherwise considered healthy, was transferred to our hospital with a 3–day history of fever, back pain and confusion.

Have you been waiting for the ACCP-SEEK app to include pulmonary and critical care questions? Well, the new version is now available in iTunes and contains 400 more questions!

 ACCP-SEEK is designed to stimulate and challenge consumers' clinical thought processes regarding recall, interpretation, and problem-solving skills.

A 38-year-old man with a history of urethral and esophageal strictures, as well as smokeless tobacco use, was referred to the pulmonary clinic for a suspicious nodule in the right upper lobe seen on a CT scan. He had a history of oral squamous cell carcinoma stage III (T1N1M0) treated with wide local excision and bilateral neck dissection. Surgery was followed by one cycle of a planned three cycles of cisplatin complicated by severe pancytopenia requiring hospitalization. The patient subsequently received adjuvant radiation therapy to the neck. A follow-up CT scan demonstrated a suspicious nodule in the right upper lobe for which he was referred to a pulmonary medicine specialist. On exam, he has stable vital signs, including pulse oximetry. He has well-healed incisions on his neck and skin changes consistent with radiation therapy. His cardiac and lung examination results are normal. The only other noteworthy finding is that he has significant dystrophic fingernails. He states that he has had them all of his life.

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