title: [Nine myasthenia gravis cases of thoracoscopic extended thymectomy].
abstract: The indication of thoracoscopic excision of mediastinal tumor at our department is benign tumor or noninvasive thymoma diagnosed before surgery. For myasthenia gravis, thoracoscopic extended thymectomy is performed with a bilateral thoracic approach using a laparolift, and this procedure is indicated for cases with complication of thymoma with a tumor size up to 5 cm. We performed thoracoscopic extended thymectomy in 9 myasthenia gravis patients between January and October 2011, and achieved favorable postoperative courses with no development of major complications so far. However,surgery required a long time compared to the conventional extended thymectomy employing median sternotomy, showing that further modification of the surgical procedure and improvement of the surgical skill are necessary. We report the details of thoracoscopic extended thymectomy with a bilateral thoracic approach for 9 myasthenia gravis patients performed at our department.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagata
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Umehara
authors.forename: Souichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wakida
authors.forename: Tsunayuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Otsuka
authors.forename: Kota
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kariatsumari
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakasegawa
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Masami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000601:surgery*; D013906:Thoracoscopy; D013934:Thymectomy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome