Transcervical thymectomy with the aid of mediastinoscopy for myasthenia gravis: eight years' experience.
Fifty-eight patients with myasthenia gravis, including 12 children, underwent thymectomy. Eleven of them (19%) had total stable remission and 42 (72%) showed clinical improvement and were able to reduce their anticholinesterase medication. These two groups combined comprised 53 patients (91%). There was no operative or postoperative mortality. Histopathological examination of the resected thymuses revealed a tumor (benign thymoma) in 4 patients (7%), thymitis in 36(62%), and no pathological changes in 18(31%). Patients with few or no germinal centers tended to achieve remission more rapidly than those with numerous germinal centers.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000601:surgery; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008481:Mediastinoscopy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D012075:Remission, Spontaneous; D013934:Thymectomy / Q000379:methods*; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000473:pathology; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery