[Surgical treatment of myasthenia gravis in children using transsternal thymectomy]

Myasthenia gravis is an inmunological disease infrecuent during childhood. In recent years, thymectomy has gained increasing acceptance as the most effective treatment for acheiving sustained improvement in patients affected of myasthenia gravis. We report our experience in five children treated by trassternal radical thymectomy in the last five years. This patients were clinically staged following Osserman's classification as stage IIB (three cases) and stage III (two cases). All of them are in complete remission after a mean postoperative period of thirty three months. We add a review of the literature comparing the differents surgical approaches for thymectomy and its results in children.