Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon: Role and Training

What Does a Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon Do?

Learn what a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon does, how long training takes and the four subspecialties, from congenital heart surgery to transplants.

By Izkey Newsroom

Published April 9, 2021, 1:38 PM WIB 2 min read

Have you heard of a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon? This specialist may not be as familiar as a cardiologist (a heart specialist), yet surgeons in this field play an important part for people with heart disease, especially those who need an operation. Operations on the organs in the chest cavity are generally performed by this kind of surgeon.

Getting to Know the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon

A thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon is a doctor with special expertise in treating conditions inside the patient's chest cavity, chiefly the heart and lungs. The specialist's tasks include making diagnoses, prescribing medication and performing surgery when it is needed.

Before becoming a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon, a doctor must first graduate as a general practitioner. Only then can the doctor enter specialist training in thoracic, cardiac and vascular surgery, which lasts about 5 years or 10 semesters. Once the specialist training is completed and the doctor is declared to have passed, the doctor earns the title of thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon (Sp. BTKV).

The path does not end there. Thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons can still pursue a subspecialty to sharpen their expertise.

Subspecialties of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons

Like doctors in other fields, thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons can still take a subspecialty. This narrows the surgical division, because thoracic and cardiovascular surgery itself still covers a fairly wide scope.

Here are several subspecialty areas of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery:

Congenital heart surgery, which treats the various congenital heart diseases that babies or children have had since birth.
General heart surgery, the division that handles operations on people with heart disease, particularly adult patients. Operations are usually performed because of coronary heart disease, heart valve disease or heart failure.
Chest organ transplantation, the division that specifically handles heart and lung transplants.
Chest surgery, which specifically handles problems in the chest area, such as operations on the diaphragm, chest wall, lungs and esophagus.

Quite a lot of subspecialties, aren't there? If you need a consultation with the specialists above, you can get checked at Heartology, a health facility dedicated to the heart. Besides a full range of services, Heartology has many expert specialists, including a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon.