title: Thymectomy for thymoma and myasthenia gravis. A survey of current surgical practice in thymic disease amongst EACTS members.
abstract: Thymic disorders, both oncological and non-oncological, are rare. Multi-institutional, randomized studies are currently not available. The Thymic Working Group of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) decided to perform a survey aiming to estimate the extent and type of current surgical practice in thymic diseases. A questionnaire was addressed to the thoracic and cardio-thoracic members of the society, and the answers received from 114 participants were analysed. High-volume surgeons cooperate more frequently with a dedicated neurologist and anaesthesist (P = 0.04), determine more frequently neurological scores pre- and postoperatively (P = 0.02) and do not operate on thymic hyperplasia in stage I myasthenia gravis (MG) (P = 0.04). High-volume thymoma surgeons more often use a transpleural approach for stage I thymoma < 4 cm (P = 0.01), induction therapy (P = 0.05) and are more likely to have access to a tissue bank (P = 0.04). Both in thymoma and MG surgery, cooperative prospective studies seem to be feasible in dedicated thoracic surgical associations as EACTS.
authors.affiliation: Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. m.lucchi@med.unipi.it
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lucchi
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van Schil
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schmid
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rea
authors.forename: Franca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Melfi
authors.forename: Kalliopi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Athanassiadi
authors.forename: Marcin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zielinski
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Treasure
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia / Q000639:trends; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005060:Europe; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000601:surgery*; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy / Q000639:trends; D009462:Neurology / Q000639:trends; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000639:trends; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000639:trends*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013934:Thymectomy / Q000639:trends*; D013945:Thymoma / Q000601:surgery*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013997:Time Factors