[The history of thymus surgery]

Thymus surgery was initially dominated by the erroneous interpretation of the organs' pathogenicity and associated thymus diseases. Misleadingly, the thymus gland was made responsible for dyspnoea in children and a transcervical ektropexia was performed in a child suffering from dyspnoea in 1896. After F. Sauerbruch's thymectomy in a patient with myasthenia gravis syndrome (MG), A. Blalock established thymectomy in the 1940s for the treatment of MG. At the same time, the drug treatment initiated by M.B. Walker increased in significance. Despite progress in surgical techniques and the molecular understanding of MG pathogenesis, randomized controlled trials, which would increase the evidence for surgical access and indications for surgery compared to immunosuppressive treatment in MG, are lacking.