About Us
The Department of Thoracic Surgery was founded in July 2008, when our hospital started to operate. Initially, Dr. Kung-Ming Wang from Wan Fang Medical Center and Dr. Yung-Chang Lien from Taipei Medical University Hospital supported the practice of clinical work. In July 2009, Dr. Tung-Yu Tiong joined the department, while Prof. Liang-Shun Wang and Dr. Kuang-Tai Kuo became a member of the department in February and June in 2010, respectively. In addition, Dr. Chi-Wei Duann was once contributing her profession in the department from November 2015 to January 2017. Our department has granted the qualification of training hospital for thoracic surgeons since 2010, and currently, we can train two thoracic surgeons every year. The present composition of our department includes one chief surgeon, two attending surgeons, two nurse practitioners and one secretary; among them, there were one professor and one assistant professor. We emphasize practice and research equally, and were highlighted by publishing articles in SCI journals every year, as well as granting support of research projects by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan frequently.
The distinguishing features of our clinical services include:
●Various types of minimally invasive thoracic surgery to treat the following diseases:
→Lung: lung cancer, benign lung tumor, indeterminate lung disease, pneumothorax, pleural empyema and chronic pleural effusion… etc.
→Esophagus: esophageal cancer, benign esophageal tumor, esophageal diverticulum, esophageal stricture, esophageal perforation or other injuries…etc.
→Mediastinum: benign or malignant thymic epithelial tumors, other mediastinal tumors, myasthenia gravis…etc.
→Chest wall: congenital deformity such as funnel chest, benign or malignant chest wall tumors…etc.
●Uniportal Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) for simpler ones of the diseases mentioned above
●Da Vinci robotic surgery, mainly for lung cancer, esophageal cancer and thymic diseases
●Minimally invasive open reduction with internal fixation (ORIF) for rib fractures
●Various types of tracheal surgery, including tumor and stricture…etc.
Apart from the abovementioned kinds of thoracic surgery, our department is also dedicated to treating the end-stage lung diseases. Dr. Kuang-Tai Kuo had been to Duke University, United States and Kyoto University, Japan for the training of lung transplantation. Our hospital is going to grant the qualification of lung transplantation center soon and becomes the eighth one having such privileges in Taiwan. We are going to start the lung transplantation program in the near future to benefit the end-stage lung disease patients.