Dr. Virginia R. Litle, MD

Virginia R. Litle, MD, serves as the Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. She has expertise in providing minimally invasive approaches to benign and malignant diseases of the esophagus including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Barrett's Esophagus, and esophageal cancer, as well as minimally invasive treatment of lung cancer and mediastinal diseases.Dr. Litle completed fellowships in thoracic minimally invasive surgery and surgical oncology at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also completed a residency in cardiothoracic surgery. She completed her general surgery residency at the University of California, San Francisco, after graduating from the Brown-Dartmouth Program-in-Medicine. Dr. Litle is a Professor of Surgery at Boston University and has been named to Boston Magazine's Top Doctors list numerous times. Dr. Litle's clinical interests include:•Treatment of benign and malignant esophageal diseases including paraesophageal …hernias, achalasia, GERD, and esophageal cancer•Lung cancer, including robotic approaches, as clinically appropriate, for the treatment of mediastinal diseases including thymomas and nonthymomatous myasthenia gravis•Palliative thoracic interventions including endoscopic ablative and stenting therapies of esophageal and airway pathology.Her research interests include a focus on the prevention of venous blood clots following thoracic surgery, screening for esophageal cancer with a sponge technique, and disparities in the management of thoracic cancers.Dr. Litle is a member of the AATS, ESTS, STSA, ISMICS and STS, is President of the Naffziger Surgical Society at the University of California, San Francisco, and is a Past President of Women in Thoracic Surgery. She also serves as the Vice President of the Thoracic Surgery Foundation, the charitable arm of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Among distinguished editorial posts, Dr. Litle is the Editor of Thoracic Surgery Clinics, an Associate Editor of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Senior Associate Surgical Editor of Foregut and is an active member of the following national and international committees: AATS Wellness, the ESTS Thoracic Infections, International Society of Diseases of the Esophagus Guidelines and the ESTS/AATS VTE Committee.