Improvement in symptom remission rate following robotic thymectomy in patients with myasthenia gravis

We investigated long-term symptom control of myasthenia gravis following robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) versus video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) thymectomy in a retrospective single-centre cohort.

From 1999 to 2015, a total of 147 patients underwent thymectomy for myasthenia gravis. Demographic data, medications, operative details, hospital length of stay (LOS), procedure complications and follow-up data were collected by chart review. The Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America classification was used to evaluate preoperative and postoperative myasthenia gravis status. The primary outcome was complete stable remission (CSR) status.

Of the 147 patients, 86 (59%) patients underwent VATS thymectomy and 61 (42%) patients underwent RATS thymectomy. There was no operative mortality. The median follow-up was 12 years in the VATS group [interquartile range (IQR) 9-14 years] and 5 years in the RATS group (IQR 3-6 years) (P = 0.001). Two patients in the VATS (2%) and 2 patients (3%) in the RATS group had Clavien-Dindo grade 3 complications. The median LOS was 3 days in the VATS group (IQR 2-4 days) and 2 days in the RATS group (IQR 2-3 days) (P = 0.013). The rate of CSR was 18% (14/65) in the VATS group compared to 26% (16/44) in the RATS group (P = 0.06). Younger age, RATS approach and preoperative medical remission were independently predictive of CSR by Cox regression analysis.

Patients who underwent RATS thymectomy and were younger or medically remitted before surgery were more likely to achieve CSR. Both methods yield excellent perioperative outcome.