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Dr. Robert J Cerfolio
Contact Information
- 703 19th Street, Birmingham, Alabama 35294
- (205) 934-5937
- robert.cerfolio@ccc.uab.edu
Dr. James Cerfolio has a board certification in General Thoracic Surgery and is the Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham. Dr. Cerfolio received his B.S. at the University of Rochester in New York, and then earned a medical degree at the U of R's School of Medicine, in 1988. He interned at St. Francis Hospital at the University of Connecticut. While in residency for urology at Cornell University Medical College in Ithaca, New York, Dr. Cerfolio became interested in cardiothoracic surgery. In 1991, he entered general surgical training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he stayed to complete a cardiothoracic fellowship in 1996. That same year, he joined the team at UAB.
Dr. Cerfolio is considered by his colleagues to be one of the best thoracic surgeons in the world, and indeed the focus of Dr. Cerfolio’s medical practice is thoracic-related cancer surgery. Beside his expertise in lung and esophageal cancers, he is also treats other cancers that affect the wall of the chest, like mesothelioma. He has performed operations in which tumors have been removed from the ribs and diaphragm, often using video-assisted surgical techniques.
Dr. Cerfolio has also been involved in extensive research. One special area of research is in developing ways to make a patient’s recovery quicker while reducing their post-operative pain. He has developed an innovative technique for opening and closing a patient’s chest that creates less pain, and allows them to leave the hospital sooner and return to their normal activities more quickly. These new methods have eliminated the need for some patients to stay in a hospital’s intensive care unit. Dr. Cerfolio studies new techniques to perform surgery on the elderly to reduce pain and time of incapacitation.
Dr. Cerfolio has written many articles for professional journals, on such topics as the use of PET scans in patients with both lung and esophageal cancer, and surgery and post-surgical care for the elderly. He routinely presents papers to the American Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He is a member of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery as well as the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association.
Dr. Cerfolio, who calls himself “the busiest thoracic surgeon in the world,” treats patients from many different countries, and consults on eight to 10 cases a day, often performing multiple surgeries in a day.