I had it done at Shands in Gainesville, FL. The doctor's name is Machuca. He is a Cardio Thoracic Surgeon. He is now somewhere in Miami, FL. You want to check out your surgeon and find out how he does the surgery. I had the first surgery robotically with just a few incisions and a chest tube. Also they did a nerve block before the surgery started. Months later I got pneumonia and coughed so hard the sutures broke. Another 6 months later i had the big surgery. They did a incision about 4-5 inches long. It's been over 3 years since I had the surgery.