As an integrated cardiothoracic surgery intern at the time, my general surgery chief resident asked me, "How did you know so early on that you wanted to do cardiothoracic surgery? Indeed, in the integrated pathway's infancy, concerns for potential mid-training attrition were raised citing this very reason. But ultimately, how does a trainee or a student decide on a specialty? Ideally, it is based on sufficient information; but how much is sufficient and how long should one spend to gather that information?
In the U. This pipeline is in comparison to other countries with six-year medical school curriculum immediately after high school and competency-based trainee promotion, rather than the time-based promotion and a stepwise sub-specialization system in the U.
The work would be hard, the hours would be long, and the learning curve was steeper than Mount Washington. And I had a few things going against me. For one, there was my academic record. Twelve of 13 medical schools rejected me.
I was the least talented person in my residency. Deep inside I knew I could become a cardiac surgeon, and a good one. So I gathered every ounce of persistence I had, and after much resistance, found a training program that would accept me. Today, many years and more than 22, cardiac surgeries later, I know it was the right decision. That opinion has been reinforced by grateful patients, and by Cleveland Clinic, where I served as chairman of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery for 15 years, and am now president and CEO.
But what explains my average academic record and difficult years in medical school? I was an undiagnosed dyslexic. Once you work it up to the thoracic aorta, you can deploy the stent by expanding it to address the defect in the wall.
Cardiothoracic surgery is a pretty dope specialty. If you love big, epic operations, this is the field for you. Where else can you feel the heart beating in your hands, stop it, and then bring it back to life? CT surgery is also incredibly exciting with rapid innovation and new robotic and minimally invasive surgeries being developed regularly.
However, you should also be able to stomach when cases occasionally go bad. If you love complex work with multiple moving parts and teamwork, CT surgery has you covered. Lastly, money.
This is a highly demanding specialty with a great deal of hard work. Surgeries are long, and patients are sick, often not having favorable outcomes. You will have more patients die than compared to other specialties. In this line of work, emergency surgeries in the middle of the night are not uncommon. Get ready to pull all-nighters and still operate the next day. Training is long and it will take a while to become a CT surgeon, and even longer if you want to specialize further.
While other specialties have 3 to 5 years of training after medical school, be prepared to spend another decade for CT surgery. At the end of the day, how can you decide if CT surgery is a good fit for you? If you also crave innovation and want to be on the cutting edge of surgery, CT seems to always have a new noteworthy technology every year and is one of the leading specialties in robotics utilization.
Finally, CT surgery is incredibly competitive, particularly if you want to get into an integrated residency or get into a strong general surgery residency to position you well for a CT fellowship.
And who better to learn from and be mentored by than CT surgeons themselves. There are a lot of misconceptions about General Surgery. This is the reality of general surgery. Join our mailing list to receive MSI exclusives, news, and updates. No spam.
One-click unsubscribe. By continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. You can learn more here. Skip to content. By Kevin Jubbal, M. Share on facebook Facebook. Share on twitter Twitter. Share on linkedin LinkedIn. Share on email Email. What is Cardiothoracic Surgery?
There are a few ways to categorize CT surgery. Cardiac vs Thoracic vs Cardiothoracic First, we can divide the types of surgery based on anatomy.
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