Surgeon Announces a Less Invasive Approach to Lung Surgery

Feb. 6, 2013 - PRLog -- First Choice Physician Partners (http://www.firstchoicephysicianpartners.com/) announces the availability of a specialty approach to lung surgeries and biopsies called VATS (Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery) used to detect and remove cancer, fluids, tissues and other masses from the lung area.   VATS procedures are now being performed at the Doctors Medical Center of Modesto.

The innovative approach, which involves video assisted instruments including a digital scope and monitor, provides a less intrusive alternative to open chest surgery (thoracotomy). Thoracotomy typically leaves an eight-inch or longer incision and scar; instead, the VATS procedure reduces pain, bleeding and recovery time involved in surgery, while minimizing scarring to as small as 5 mm.

Dr. Minghui Liu is the only doctor offering VATS at Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, and one of just three specialists in the Modesto area accredited to perform the VATS procedure. Liu, a Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgeon and Affiliate of the Greater Modesto Medical Surgical Associates, explains that doctors must undergo an additional two to three years of special training in order to offer this procedure, and he is perhaps the only physician in the vicinity using the approach for both biopsy and lobectomy.

“The Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery is a valuable technological procedure that offers patients a better experience from beginning to end,” says Liu. “It minimizes trauma to the patient during the procedure and reduces hospitalization time to just two to three days.”

Liu says the procedure can be applied to cases of lung cancer, spontaneous pneumothorax, empyema, lobectomy, removing lung masses and pockets of fluid, biopsies and diagnoses for cancers, and is now available by physician referral.

For more information about the VATS procedure or to make an appointment with Dr. Minghui Lui, contact DeAnn Bauche, Manager of CV Surgeons by calling (209) 575-5833. For press inquiries, please call press agency AR & Co. PR & Marketing at (805) 239-4443 or email pr@arandcompany.com.