Cardiothoracic Surgery refers to operations that treat diseases affecting the heart (cardio) and lungs (thoracic).

Physicians in this specialty treat patients suffering from numerous diseases and illnesses, but some of the most common are mesothelioma, lung cancer, congenital heart disease, lung disease, pectus excavatum, thymoma, aortic aneurysm, cardiovascular disease, esophageal carcinoma, pulmonary metastases, chest wall tumors, esophageal diseases, tracheal tumors, malignant pleural effusions, and thoracic neoplasms.

Once properly diagnosed, practitioners can perform numerous procedures on patients including lobectomy, mediastinoscopy, mitral valve replacement, lung transplantation, ventricular assist device, lung volume reduction, aortic dissection, coronary artery bypass graft (cabg), coronary artery bypass surgery, mitral valve repair, heart transplantation, miniminally invasive surgery (mis), ventricular restoration (dor procedure), video-assisted thoracoscopy (vats), bullectomy, arrhythmia surgery, and thoracic aorta repairs.

To diagnose patients with possible illnesses and diseases, specialists will often perform one of many tests including biopsy, x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging (mri), electrocardiogram (ecg or ekg), upper gi (barium swallow), computed axial tomography (ct or cat scan), and physicial examination.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. The United States has 4,619 practicing cardiothoracic surgeons. Broken out by state, cardiothoracic surgery doctor density in Alabama is 79, in Alaska is 3, in Arizona is 76, in Arkansas is 49, in California is 504, in Colorado is 45, in Connecticut is 62, in Delaware is 26, in District of Columbia is 38, in Florida is 311, in Georgia is 107, in Hawaii is 19, in Idaho is 11, in Illinois is 233, in Indiana is 137, in Iowa is 58, in Kansas is 41, in Kentucky is 71, in Louisiana is 88, in Maine is 21, in Maryland is 108, in Massachusetts is 136, in Michigan is 139, in Minnesota is 64, in Mississippi is 43, in Missouri is 138, in Montana is 10, in Nebraska is 22, in Nevada is 30, in New Hampshire is 14, in New Jersey is 148, in New Mexico is 25, in New York is 324, in North Carolina is 116, in North Dakota is 14, in Ohio is 222, in Oklahoma is 49, in Oregon is 50, in Pennsylvania is 287, in Rhode Island is 16, in South Carolina is 60, in South Dakota is 10, in Tennessee is 108, in Texas is 338, in Utah is 24, in Vermont is 5, in Virginia is 95, in Washington is 87, in West Virginia is 40, in Wisconsin is 84, and in Wyoming is 6.