Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery versus sternotomy in treating myasthenia gravis: comparison by a case-matched...

To clarify the efficacy of a right-sided video-assisted thoracoscopic extended thymectomy (RtVATET) as a surgical alternative for myasthenia gravis (MG) and to determine the optimal timing for a thymectomy.

Thirty-three patients who underwent RtVATET in two institutes were enrolled in this study. Another 66 paired, traditional trans-sternal extended thymectomy (TET) patients from the registered database were used to compare these two surgical modalities for MG.

Mean blood loss was 88.5 ml in RtVATET and 226.8 ml in TET group patients (P < 0.001). Mean operation duration was 207.3 min for RtVATET and 172.8 min for TET patients (P = 0.003). Complete stable remission (CSR) rates and total improvement rates for the RtVATET and TET patients were 42.4% vs 60.6% (P = 0.087) and 87.9% vs 90.1% (P = 0.637), respectively. Furthermore, when we focused on the minor grades (classes I and IIa), TET groups showed significantly better CSR than the RtVATET groups (P = 0.012), but there was no statistically significant difference for the more severe grades (classes IIb and III, P = 0.827).

Both RtVATET and TET are effective for treating MG, although this study does indicate an advantage for TET. We suggest that a thymectomy should therefore be performed earlier, or that the procedures should be extensive enough to remove all of the tissue that contains thymic tissue.