Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery for myasthenia gravis with thymoma: A six-year single-center experience

Objectives: To investigate clinical and histopathological characteristics of Vietnamese patients with thymoma and myasthenia gravis (MG), and the outcomes of surgical management using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) thymectomy. Methods: A prospective study was carried out on 61 patients undergoing VATS thymectomy for MG class I, IIA with thymoma in the period from 10/2013 to 5/2019. The WHO histopathological classification, Masaoka's stages and MG grading using the guidelines of the Medical Scientific Advisory Board of the Myasthenia gravis foundation of America (MGFA) were used. All patients were followed up at 1 month, 6 months and over 1 year postoperatively. Results: The average patient age was 47.3 +/- 10.8 years (21-70). The female/male ratio was 0.91.80.3% of patients had MG class IIA. Most of the patients were at Masaoka's stage I and stage II (75.4%). Only 1 patient (1.7%) had highly malignant type B3 thymoma. Conversion to open surgery was required in 8 patients. The surgical time was 91.8 +/- 49.9 min and blood loss was 37.3 +/- 31.5 ml. Most patients (68.9%) were extubated in the operating room. The postoperative hospital stay was 9.8 +/- 5.9 days (5-37 days). 22.6% of patients relapsed after one-year. Refractory MG declined to 5.7% after surgical treatment. Conclusion: VATS thymectomy for MG with thymoma was safe and effective, with a lower rate of intraoperative complications, shorter hospitalization, and better long-term outcomes. This approach could be applicable for patients of all age groups with thymomas at early Masaoka's stages. (c) 2020 Asian Surgical Association and Taiwan Robotic Surgery Association. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The study investigated the clinical and histopathological characteristics of Vietnamese patients with thymoma and myasthenia gravis, as well as the outcomes of surgical management using video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) thymectomy. The results showed that VATS thymectomy was safe and effective for thymoma patients with MG at early Masaoka stages, with lower rate of intraoperative complications and better long-term outcomes.