Benefits of early thymectomy in patients with myasthenia gravis.

Objective: To report our experience of early thymectomy in patients with myasthenia gravis.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: University department of surgery, Greece.

Subjects: 76 Patients with myasthenia gravis.

Interventions: Transcervical thymectomy in all cases, additional left thoracotomy in four cases.

Main outcome measures: Mortality, morbidity, and early (6 months) and late (mean follow-up 4.8 years) response to thymectomy.

Results: 20 Patients had thymomas (26%). There was no postoperative mortality; morbidity was 11% (n = 8). There was complete remission in 19 (25%), improvement in 49 (65%) no change in 7 (9%), and impairment in 1 (1%) of the patients at 6 months. Patients who had had symptoms for less than 5 years (p < 0.001), were in an earlier stage of disease (p = 0.006), and who did not have thymomas (p = 0.006) responded better. 3 Patients died of invasive thymoma at 2 1/2, 3, and 5 1/2 years postoperatively and 25/76 (33%) were lost to follow-up. Of the 51 patients available for late follow-up, 19 (37%) were in remission, in 26 (51%) the symptoms had improved, 3 (6%) were unchanged, and 3 (6%) had died of the disease.

Conclusions: Transcervical thymectomy should be considered in patients with early myasthenia gravis.