The Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery provides comprehensive care for patients requiring cardiac (heart) surgery and thoracic (chest/lung) surgery. Our surgeons perform over 500 adult open-heart procedures and 150 adult thoracic procedures annually.

The Division’s faculty are leading members of the multidisciplinary teams of the Stony Brook Heart Center and the Lung Cancer Evaluation Center, respectively.

Cardiac Surgery

The Division specializes in high-risk and tertiary care types of surgical interventions. Our surgeons provide the most sophisticated treatment for all forms of heart disease, including high-risk states after acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and congestive heart failure.

Our surgeons perform an array of operations using with both traditional and newly developed, leading-edge techniques. Together with Stony Brook's specialists in cardiology, they contribute to the nationally recognized excellence of the Stony Brook University Heart Center.

Our surgeons manage University Hospital’s 10-bed cardiovascular intensive care unit, which is capable of providing postoperative care for the highest-risk heart patients.

In 2011, our ventricular assist device (VAD) program — the first and only VAD program on Long Island that provides "destination therapy" — received national accreditation. Click here for more information about this leading-edge program for treating heart failure.

Thoracic Surgery

The Division’s thoracic specialists  treat a range of benign and malignant pulmonary (lung) diseases in both adults and children. They perform conventional operations as well as new minimally invasive procedures, such as videoscopic lung resection and radiofrequency ablation for lung cancer.

Reflecting their commitment to utilizing the latest treatment advances, our thoracic surgeons perform Suffolk's only lung volume reduction surgery for severe emphysema. For information about their multidisciplinary approach to treating lung cancer, please see the online resources of the Lung Cancer Evaluation Center.

Since 1999, the Division has been a member of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) in order to participate in multi-center clinical trials of thoracic surgery for the treatment of lung cancer and other cancers in the chest. Our surgeons' participation provides patients with the only available access to these trials in Suffolk County.

Visit our Patient Care section for more information about our cardiac surgery and thoracic surgery services.