Thymectomy for myasthenia gravis: 12-year experience.

Thymectomy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of myasthenia gravis. The logical goal of operation is the complete removal of the thymus, but there is no consensus on the selection criteria of patients for surgery and the choice of surgical approach. We retrospectively reviewed 56 patients with myasthenia gravis who had been treated surgically by transsternal radical thymectomy between January 1990 and March 2002. The patients were symptomatically grouped according to the modified Osserman clinical classification. There was 1 hospital death, and 53 patients had been followed up for between 1 month and 12 years. Improvement after thymectomy was observed in 1 of 4 patients (25%) in Osserman group I, 25 of 34 patients (74%) in Osserman group IIA, and 16 of 18 patients (89%) in combined Osserman groups IIB and IIC. Transsternal radical thymectomy is an effective therapy for myasthenia gravis. Sustained improvement is achievable in female patients with moderate to severe symptoms and in patients with thymic hyperplasia.