Recurrence of thymic hyperplasia after thymectomy in myasthenia gravis. Its importance as a cause of failure of surgical treatment.

Persistence of symptoms in patients with myasthenia gravis who have undergone previous thymectomy has been attributed to thymus remnants. Patients with partial or no recovery were studied 40 +/- 31 months (mean +/- SD) after surgery, which had been carried out by the transcervical approach in 20 and trans-sternal approach in four. Lateral x-ray tomography of the mediastinum after injection of air showed images compatible with residual thymus gland in 18 patients (75 percent). Thirteen of these underwent reoperation by the trans-sternal approach, and thymic tissue was found in 11 (85 percent). After repeated thymectomy, 67 percent of the patients improved clinically. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to infer that incomplete removal of the thymus was responsible, at least partly, for failure of the first procedure.