INPERSON
LEADING THE WAY
There are approximately 4,700 cardiothoracic surgeons in the United
States—and less than 4 percent of those surgeons are women. AHN’s
Dr. Mitsuko Takahashi is one of them.
BY JENNIFER BROZAK
A
s the average life expectancy of people living in developed
countries continues to rise, so does the need for specialists
to treat conditions that primarily affect an aging population.
Among those conditions are a host of cardiovascular and lung
diseases, such as heart disease, peripheral artery disease and lung
cancers.
As such, cardiothoracic surgery remains one of the most in-
demand specialties in the field of medicine. There are approximately
4,700 cardiothoracic surgeons in the United States—and less than 4
percent of those surgeons are women. In Pittsburgh, there are only
a handful of surgeons who specialize in both cardiothoracic and
vascular surgery.
One of those surgeons, Dr. Mitsuko Takahashi, is located right
here in the South Hills. A native of Southern California who now
lives in South Park, Dr. Takahashi earned her medical degree from
Des Moines University. She then completed her residency at the
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and a fellowship at Mount Sinai
Hospital, both in New York. She joined the Park Cardiothoracic and
Vascular Institute, which is based out of Jefferson Hospital, in 2012. put a camera inside the chest and take out the cancer using smaller
instruments. Now we’re trying to do this robotically, which has
begun to show some improvement in the visualization to help the
surgeon—the picture seems to be a bit better and the incisions seem
to be a bit smaller. I think being able to do the same thing in many
ways is actually pretty wonderful, so that you can tailor-make the
treatment for the patient.
HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON CARDIOTHORACIC AS YOUR SPECIALTY? ARE THERE ANY COMMON MYTHS OR MISCONCEPTIONS
ABOUT HEART/THORACIC DISEASES THAT YOU COME ACROSS
IN YOUR FIELD?
I liked all surgery, but the chest seemed to be a very fascinating
part of the body. The heart is just an amazing organ, and I like the
intricate nature of the surgery. I liked the fact that there was a lot
of physiology involved in cardiovascular surgery, much more than
other types of surgeries, because we put patients through what we
call cardiopulmonary bypass. It is a bit more involved than other
types of surgeries, and you get to watch how the patient’s physiology
changes right in front of your eyes, which is fascinating. In thoracic
surgery, you can see esophageal and lung cancers, and you’re able to
help an entirely different patient population.
WHAT IS EXCITING TO YOU IN YOUR FIELD AT THIS MOMENT?
It’s exciting to see that we’re working toward surgery in a
minimally invasive fashion. The fact that we can operate more safely
on aging patients is amazing. For example, in the cardiac surgery
realm, one of the bigger things a lot of people talk about is TAVR, or
transcatheter aortic valve replacement, which repairs a valve without
having to remove the old valve. This is a good option for patients
who maybe are older or who have had a prior surgery and, therefore,
their second surgery would be very high risk and surgery would not
be an option.
In the thoracic realm, we used to take a lot of lung cancers out
with a major incision called a thoracotomy. Within the last two
decades or so, we’ve been performing thoracoscopy, where you
YOU ARE BELIEVED TO BE THE ONLY FEMALE CARDIOTHORACIC
SURGEON IN PITTSBURGH AND ONE OF ONLY A FEW HUNDRED
ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HAS THIS DISTINCTION AFFECTED YOUR
PATH TO BECOMING A SURGEON?
Many surgeons decide to specialize in cardiac or thoracic, but
there aren’t many of us who continue to specialize in both. I had
never met any female cardiothoracic surgeons prior to my training,
but I had a good mentor who introduced me to a few female
surgeons in our specialty and they were huge in helping me to make
a decision. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve never felt discriminated
against in any of the surgical realms, so I never felt that it was a
hindrance in any way.
On the cardiac side, a misconception is that heart disease affects
more men, when in fact it affects more women. As a female, I’ve
done a lot of talks to women particularly about heart disease because
the symptoms present differently. Women tend to be the caregivers
of the home, but many of them forget to take care of themselves.
It’s important for women to know the symptoms of heart disease
and how they can be different in them versus their husbands, for
example. A man might present more with the classic arm pain, chest
pain, jaw pain, whereas women present more with fatigue, a little bit
of GERD or nausea that they may think is just part of aging.
About our health in general, it’s really important to modify the
risk factors that get patients to a surgeon in the first place—they
smoke, maybe they have diabetes or high cholesterol, or maybe
their blood pressure is elevated or they might be obese. These are
common risk factors that affect all arteries of the body. This is why
they end up coming to a heart surgeon and needing open-heart
surgery, or why they come to a vascular surgeon and need surgery
because the arteries in their legs are clogged. Unless they actively
take a role in changing these things, the disease is going to come
back again. We try to stress that patients have to play an active role in
their health. The surgeons are the last line of treatment. ■
For more information about Dr. Takahashi, visit https://doctors.ahn.org/Mitsuko-Takahashi.
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