Thoracic Services
What are thoracic services?
Thoracic services encompass diagnostic and treatment approaches for managing and caring for illnesses or conditions affecting the organs, tissues, and structures inside the chest. It is an interdisciplinary specialty of various healthcare providers, including pulmonologists, cardiologists, surgeons, and radiologists.
Using technologies such as bronchoscopy, thoracentesis, pleural biopsy, and thoracoscopy, thoracic specialists can look into the air passages and space inside the chest and take biopsies or remove fluids if necessary to diagnose conditions affecting the structures inside the chest.
Thoracic surgeons operate on the heart, lungs, esophagus, and major blood vessels within the chest.
Why are thoracic services important in healthcare?
Thoracic services are an essential component of healthcare today. These services employ specialized providers with the knowledge and expertise needed to diagnose, treat, and monitor a wide range of diseases and conditions related to the chest.
Access to thoracic services can help to improve a patient’s quality of life by providing oxygen therapy or chest physiotherapy to manage and control chronic conditions like asthma or other respiratory problems that can make breathing difficult or painful. Additionally, access to thoracic services can be key in the early detection of cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, or other respiratory issues.
Having thoracic specialists on staff is also important at times of increased cases of the flu or other respiratory-related illnesses like COVID-19 or pneumonia.