Dr. Bibhusal Thapa is a Thoracic Surgeon who currently heads the Thoracic Surgeon Unit at Northern Health. Dr Thapa completed his undergraduate studies in Medicine in 2002 through Kathmandu University. In 2007 he completed post-graduate training in General Surgery in Kathmandu. In 2009, Dr Thapa was awarded the Rowan Nicks Scholarship through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and completed a year of fellowship training in the Austin Hospital, Melbourne. He further went on to complete super-specialty training in Thoracic Surgery through the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan which he completed in 2015. Between 2014 and 2017, he also completed a PhD with the University of Melbourne studying the genomic aberrations in Mesothelioma. Dr Thapa was instrumental in the development of the Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) in Nepal and between 2018 and 2020, he headed the Thoracic Surgery department in the University Hospital in Kathmandu.
After moving to Melbourne in 2020, Bibhusal has been working in the Thoracic Surgery Unit at Northern Health and has been heading the unit since August 2022. He is also employed at The Austin Thoracic Surgery unit as a Locum surgeon.
Dr Thapa has a keen interest in the evaluation and management of malignancies that effect the chest especially lung cancer, mesothelioma and mediastinal tumours. His operative expertise is in the minimal access surgery for chest (Key hole surgery or VATS). He has gathered extensive experience in interventional bronchoscopy and airway surgery.
Dr Thapa maintains deep interest in research and is widely published having contributed more than 40 articles and book chapters. He is an active member of the International Society for study of lung cancer, Thoracic Oncology Group of Australia and the Australia New Zealand Cardio-Thoracic Society.
As a consultant Thoracic surgeon, Dr Thapa remains active in Thoracic Surgery in both public and private practice.
Special interests
Minimally invasive thoracoscopic (Key hole) lobectomy & Segmentectomy
Mediastinal tumors excision - Thoracoscopic and thoracotomy
Thymic surgery -thymectomy
Chest wall tumors
Interventional bronchoscopy
Bullous lung disease (Lung Volume Reduction Surgery)
Pleural Diseases including Mesothelioma
Recurrent pneumothorax/ pleurectomy
Mediastinoscopy-biopsy
Chest wall deformities repair for Pectus excavatum / carinatum
Thoracoscopic sympathectomy
Current appointments:
Northern Health, Epping
Austin Hospital, Heidelberg
John Fawkner Private Hospital, Coburg
Research / Publications- https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0978-6671