Marcus Döring's operation: thoracotomy

This operation was carried out on May 24, 2004. The exact medical name is right-sided anterolateral thoracotomy.

It was done to get a better understanding and a detailed histology of the masses that were visible on my CT scans of the right lung in April and May 2004. They were feared to be metastases of the primary tumor.
As this would have meant a late recurrence of the testicular cancer (more that two years after last chemotherapy application) it was vital to be absolutely sure about the consistency of the tissue. Therefore it was decided to open my thorax and get biopsies.
Minimally-invasive surgery was not possible due to the small sizes and the badly accessible locations of the masses in my right lung.

The operation is carried out by incising the skin of the thorax (in my case: at the right side). Inserting a rib spreader to open the space between the ribs allows the doctors to carefully get access to the lung itself. The respective part of the lung will (and should) collapse (pneumothorax) as air gets in the pleural space (the space surrounding the lungs).
The doctors can now carefully examine the collapsed lung (visibly and more importantly: manually with their fingers), find and cut suspective masses and have them checked by pathologists.
The lung is later re-expanded, the incisions are closed and the patient gets chest drainage tubes to drain blood, fluid, or air and allow full expansion of the lungs.

The operation (without preparation and after-care) took 1 hour and 37 minutes.

You may be interested to see the scar which was the result of my operation.

You might also be interested in pictures of another patient during a thoracotomy. But be warned: They might be unsettling and a little bit shocking! They show an open thorax and a doctor examining (palpating) the lung with his fingers.

[see: pictures] [diary: day] [Marcus' TC disease]