Extended Thymectomy for Myasthenia Gravis Patients: A 20-Year Review
Section snippets
Material and Methods
Three hundred eighty-four patients with MG (286 non-thymomatous and 98 thymomatous) were operated on in the First Department of Surgery of Osaka University and in the Second Department of Surgery of Nagoya City University from 1973 to 1993. In these, all of the nonthy-momatous patients underwent extended thymectomy. On the other hand, only 89 patients in the thymomatous group underwent extended thymectomy with total resection of thymoma. The stages of thymomas according to Masaoka and colleagues
Patient Characteristics
The age distribution is shown in Table 2. In the nonthy-momatous group, a peak in the 20- to 40-year-old group was found. The mean age was 35.0 years: men, 38.3 years, and women, 33.9 years. The sex distribution revealed predominance in women. On the other hand, the mean age of the thymomatous patients was 44.0 years: men, 43.1 years, and women, 45.1 years. The sex distribution was equivalent.
The severity of disease was classified by our MG classification system [3]: type I, MG limited to
Comment
We have performed “extended thymectomy” as a standard procedure for treatment of MG since 1973. In 1981, the results of this procedure were compared with those of the transsternal simple thymectomy, and the transcervical simple thymectomy [5]. “Simple thymectomy” means thymectomy without adipose tissue resection. In that article, we showed that the results of extended thymectomy are superior to those of the other procedures. Furthermore, we found that reoperations after ineffective cervical
References (22)
- et al.
Distribution of thymic tissue at the anterior mediastinum: current procedures in thymectomy
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
(1975) - et al.
Myasthenia gravis in elderly patients
Ann Thorac Surg
(1985) An assay for antibody to human acetylcholine receptor in serum from patients with myasthenia gravis
Clin Immunol Immunopathol
(1977)- et al.
Thymectomy for myasthenia gravis: recent observations and comparisons with past experience
Ann Thorac Surg
(1989) - et al.
Thymectomy for myasthenia gravis
Am J Surg
(1983) - et al.
Myasthenia gravis with thymoma: analysis of and postoperative prognosis for 65 patients with thymomatous myasthenia gravis
Ann Thorac Surg
(1984) - et al.
Effects of preoperative duration of symptoms on patients with myasthenia gravis
Ann Thorac Surg
(1984) - et al.
Maximal thymectomy for myasthenia gravis. Surgical anatomy and operative technique
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
(1988) - et al.
Distribution of thymic tissue in the mediastinal adipose tissue
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
(1991) - et al.
“Maximal” thymectomy for myasthenia gravis. Results
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
(1988)
Follow-up study of thymomas with special reference to their clinical stages
Cancer
Cited by (312)
Critical illness–associated weakness and related motor disorders
2023, Handbook of Clinical NeurologyOn the path to evidence-based therapy in neuromuscular disorders
2023, Handbook of Clinical NeurologySubxiphoid Versus Unilateral Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery Thymectomy for Thymomas: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis
2022, Annals of Thoracic SurgeryThymectomy in Myasthenic Patients With Thymoma: Killing Two Birds With One Stone
2021, Annals of Thoracic Surgery