Thymectomy in myasthenia gravis. The Jamaican experience.
Forty-five patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) were subjected to thymectomy by the median sternotomy technique and were followed up for 4,380 patient months. No operative deaths occurred and 93.3% of the patients benefited from surgery with 28.8% achieving remission. Forty patients (88.5%) showed improvement within one month, and 73% of those who achieved remission did so in the first 2 years. Outcome was not affected by thymic pathology except in one patient who had a thymoma removed. These results confirm the value of thymectomy in the management of MG patients with generalised disease and the efficacy of the simple median sternotomy procedure.
Barton
E N
EN
Department of Medicine, U.W.I., Jamaica.
Morgan
O S
OS
Smikle
M F
MF
Spencer
H
H
Williams
E
E
Sivapragasam
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007563:Jamaica; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D013934:Thymectomy; D013952:Thymus Hyperplasia / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome