title: [Long-term efficacy of enlarged thymectomy in treatment of myasthenia gravis and relevant influencing factors: study of 410 cases].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the long-term efficacy of enlarged thymectomy in treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG) and relevant influencing factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  546 patients with MG underwent enlarged thymectomy and were followed up for 28 months (6 to 85 months). Effective follow-up data were obtained from 410 out of the 546 patients. The clinical data of these 410 patients, 199 males and 211 females, were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The remission rate was 42.9% and the effective rate was 82.3%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that short duration of preoperative period was an independent factor of the surgical curative effect (odds ratio = 0.310, P = 0.006) and sex, age, Osserman classification, pathologic type of thymus seemed to be irrelevant to the surgical curative effect.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thymectomy is an effective measure for MG and shows a better prognosis in the patients with shorter illness duration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China.
authors.forename: Wei-bin
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Li-na
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Men
authors.forename: Zhen-guang
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hong-he
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Ru-xun
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000601:surgery*; D013934:Thymectomy / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome