Mark Dylewski, M.D.

Dr. Mark Dylewski is one of Miami’s leading thoracic surgeons. His expertise and innovation with the da Vinci Surgical System robot has made him an influential proponent for robotic surgery.

He practices at the Miami Cancer Institute and also handles pleural mesothelioma cases for many hospitals in South Florida.

Dylewski graduated from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in 1993. He completed surgical residencies at the University of California Davis-East Bay and the University of Albany Medical Center before returning to South Florida as a specialist in minimally invasive chest surgery.

From there, he rose to leadership positions in the Baptist Health system and helped launch the Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery Group in South Miami.

He is a founding member of the Clinical Robotic Surgical Association, and his peers consider him one of the nation’s top experts in pulmonary and esophageal surgery. He is also a member of the American College of Surgeons, General Thoracic Surgical Club and Society of Thoracic Surgery.

Dylewski maintains close working relationships with top medical oncologists and radiation oncologists in South Florida. This ensures his patients receive the best form of mesothelioma treatment, called multimodal therapy, which combines surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Robotic surgery for chest cancers is a young and rapidly evolving field. Dylewski developed a method for removing tumors without needing to spread a patient’s rib cage.

This allows for a shorter and less painful hospital stay after surgery for pleural mesothelioma.

Dylewski’s method uses the da Vinci robot. This machine has small arms with surgical tools and a 3D camera. The camera gives the surgeon a magnified view inside the body, and the robotic tools enable very fine-tuned movements.

Most important, the robotic arms can enter the body through small ports. In Dylewski’s method, tumors are extracted through these ports as well. This removes the need to make a large incision that causes major blood loss and takes a long time to heal.

This minimally invasive technique reduces the risk of complications during surgery. It also reduces the recovery time for the patient.

Dylewski has published the clinical results of his method in scientific journals such as the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Journal of Robotic Surgery and Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

He also gives presentations on the method at medical conferences and teaches it to surgeons as a clinical instructor. Thanks to his efforts, a new generation of thoracic surgeons is learning techniques that can improve surgery for patients with pleural mesothelioma.