Thoracic Surgery is the speciality that performs surgical interventions for pathologies within the thoracic cage (excluding heart and major blood vessels), while diseases of the spinal column are treated by their respective specialities.

Our field of action is delimited by the chest wall and the diaphragm.

The most frequently treated pathologies include oncological surgery, as well as benign processes of the lung, mediastinum, chest wall and pleura. Also treated are tracheal pathology, thoracic trauma, pleural diseases (pneumothorax, empyemas, effusions), autonomic nervous system (hypersweating) and thoracic duct. Moreover, it works alongside other specialities in the multidisciplinary treatment of oesophageal pathology and certain vertebral pathologies.

Over recent years, our speciality has focused particularly on the transition from traditional surgical techniques to minimally invasive approaches, including single or double-port thoracoscopic surgery and the use of these methods for resections of thoracic tumours.

More recently, since 2014, the Thoracic Surgery Department has introduced robotic surgery in mediastinal tumour resection and lung oncological surgery. This technique has been developed at Fundación Jiménez Díaz University Hospitals in Madrid and Rey Juan Carlos in Móstoles, with the Department having been a pioneer in introducing robotic surgery in our region.

Since oncological pathology forms a large part of our activity, our work is organised in collaboration with other services such as Medical Oncology, Pneumology, Radiation Oncology, Pathological Anatomy, Radiodiagnosis, Rehabilitation, thus ensuring functional integration in both patient care and research.

In addition to caring for patients in the public area assigned to our institution, we provide healthcare services for Rey Juan Carlos (Móstoles), Infanta Elena (Valdemoro) and General de Villalba University Hospitals.

Undergraduate training is available to medical students at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, along with postgraduate training and an accredited unit for medical residency training.

The Thoracic Surgery Service is integrated in the research structure of FJD's Health Research Institute, taking part in national and international studies.