ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical characteristics of uniportal and three-port subxiphoid video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (XVATS) extended thymectomy.MethodsThe clinical data of 60 consecutive patients of XVATS thymectomy in Xuzhou Central Hospital from January 2017 to May 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 29 males and 31 females, with an average age of 53.1 (27.0-76.0) years. The patients were divided into an uniportal XVATS group (30 patients) and a three-port XVATS group (30 patients). The clinical effectiveness was compared between the two groups.ResultsThere was no significant difference in age, sex, body mass index, tumor size, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative time of thoracic tube indwelling and thoracic drainage, or postoperative hospitalization time between the two groups (P>0.05). There was no perioperative mortality, conversion to thoracotomy, thrombosis or mediastinal infection. The operation time of the uniportal XVATS group was significantly longer than that of the three-port group (87.5±19.0 min vs. 75.8±15.7 min, P=0.012). Besides, patients in the uniportal group had significantly lower pain score during 3-14 postoperative days than that of the three-port group (P=0.001).ConclusionUniportal XVATS extended thymectomy is feasible with less pain as compared with the patients using three-port XVATS, but it needs longer operation time at initial stage.
ObjectiveTo investigate the safety, feasibility and advantages of subxiphoid uni-portal thoracoscopic thymectomy.MethodsClinical data of 65 patients undergoing subxiphoid uni-portal thoracoscopic thymectomy in our hospital from September 2018 to March 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. They were treated as a subxiphoid surgery group, including 36 males and 29 females, aged 49.5 (29-71) years. The incision with the length of about 3 cm was located approximately 1 cm under the xiphoid process. From January 2016 to December 2017, 65 patients received intercostal uni-portal thoracoscopic thymectomy, who were treated as a control group, including 38 males and 27 females, aged 48.9 (33-67) years. All patients who were clinically diagnosed with thymic tumor before surgery were treated with total thymectomy. After surgery, expectoration and analgesia were used.ResultsThere was no statistically significant difference in general clinical data, lesion size, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative catheterization time, postoperative hospital stay and postoperative pathology between the two groups. All operations were successfully completed, and the patients in both groups recovered uneventfully after surgery. Visual analogue scale scores on the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 30th day after surgery in the subxiphoid surgery group were lower than those in the control group.ConclusionThe subxiphoid uni-portal thoracoscopic approach can achieve total thymectomy with less trauma and faster postoperative recovery.
[Abstract]This study reports a case of an 83-year-old female patient with systemic severe myasthenia gravis (American Myasthenia Foundation class Ⅳb) and multiple comorbidities who achieved minimal clinical status through preoperative alemtuzumab treatment (10 mg/kg, once per week for 4 consecutive weeks). After undergoing robotic thymectomy, the patient remained clinically stable in the early postoperative period until the 5th day after surgery when she developed dysphagia. Despite intravenous immunoglobulin and other therapeutic interventions, the patient’s myasthenic symptoms continued to worsen, coughing was impaired, respiratory insufficiency intensified, non-invasive ventilation support was required, and pulmonary infection occurred. Clinical symptoms further deteriorated, with diarrhea, urinary tract infection, and progressive respiratory tract infection. She was subsequently transferred to the intensive care unit for invasive mechanical ventilation and therapeutic plasmapheresis. These interventions failed to halt the disease progression, which eventually led to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and the patient died. Notably, among the other 12 patients receiving alemtuzumab treatment during the same period, none experienced such severe complications. This case is exceptional, and a direct causal relationship between alemtuzumab and mortality risk cannot be established at this time. Further research is needed to clarify perioperative immune management strategies.
Thymectomy is the main treatment for thymoma and other thymic diseases. But the incidence of non-therapeutic thymectomy is high due to the difficulty in the differential diagnosis of anterior mediastinum lesions. Formerly, it was believed that the thymus gradually degraded and lost function with aging, and the preservation of the thymus was not valued. Recent studies have found that the removal of the thymus at all ages has adverse effects on overall health and leads to a significant increase in the risk of autoimmune diseases, malignancy, and all-cause mortality. Therefore, unnecessary thymectomy should be avoided. This article reviews the influence of thymectomy, including the changes of immunological indexes and clinical prognosis, and further discusses the current situation and avoidance methods of non-therapeutic thymectomy.
ObjectiveTo analyze the research hotspots and progress of surgical treatment of myasthenia gravis. MethodsThe top 100 most cited articles on surgical treatment of myasthenia gravis were identified by searching the Web of Science database, and a bibliometric analysis was conducted. ResultsThe publication year of the top 100 most cited articles ranged from 1939 to 2021, and the number of citations ranged from 55 to 850 per article. Most of the included articles were original research articles (75/100), which were mainly retrospective studies (64/75). The United States was the country with the most published articles and most citations, and Annals of Thoracic Surgery was the most sourced journal (n=20). Through VOSviewer analysis, high-density keywords were thymectomy, maximal thymectomy, extended thymectomy, transcervical thymectomy, thymoma, and autoantibodies. ConclusionThe scope of surgical resection, surgical approach and pathogenesis are the current hotspots in the field of surgical treatment of myasthenia gravis. It is hoped that this paper can provide references for future researches in this field.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of robot-assisted thymectomy (RATS) versus video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy (VATS). MethodsWeb of Science, PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Wanfang, VIP and CNKI databases were searched by computer from inception to February 2022. Relevant literatures that compared the efficacy and safety of RATS with those of VATS were screened. The Newcastle-OttawaScale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of included cohort studies, and Review Manager 5.4 software was utilized to perform a meta-analysis. ResultsA total of 16 retrospective cohort studies were included, covering a total of 1 793 patients (874 patients in the RATS group and 919 patients in the VATS group). The NOS scores of the included studies were≥7 points. Meta-analysis results revealed that RATS had less intraoperative bleeding (MD=−22.45, 95%CI −34.16 to −10.73, P<0.001), less postoperative chest drainage (MD=−80.29, 95%CI −144.86 to −15.72, P=0.010), shorter postoperative drainage time (MD=−0.69, 95%CI −1.08 to −0.30, P<0.001), shorter postoperative hospital stay (MD=−1.14, 95%CI −1.55 to −0.72, P<0.001) and fewer conversion to thoractomy (OR=0.40, 95%CI 0.23 to 0.69, P=0.001) than VATS; whereas, the operative time (MD=8.37, 95%CI −1.21 to 17.96, P=0.090), incidence of postoperative myasthenia gravis (OR=0.85, 95%CI 0.52 to 1.40, P=0.530), overall postoperative complications rate (OR=0.80, 95%CI 0.42 to 1.50, P=0.480) and tumour size (MD=−0.18, 95%CI −0.38 to 0.03, P=0.090) were not statistically different between the two groups. ConclusionIn the aspects of intraoperative bleeding, postoperative chest drainage, postoperative drainage time, postoperative hospital stay and conversion to thoracotomy, RATS has unique advantages over the VATS.
Objective To compare the different surgical treatment methods of thymoma combined with myasthenia gravis (MG), and to discuss the clinical effectiveness of thoracoscopic combined mediastinoscopic extended thymectomy. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 58 patients of thymoma combined with myasthenia gravis in Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital between 2011 and 2016 year. According to the operation method, the patients were divided into three groups including a group A for thoracoscopic thymectomy (n=32), a group B for thoracoscopic combined mediastinoscopic thymectomy (n=15), and a group C for transsternal thymectomy (n=11). The clinical effects were observed and compared. Results In the group A and the group B, the bleeding volume, postoperative hospital stay and other complications were significantly lower than those in the group C with statistical differences (P<0.05). The incidence of myasthenic crisis in the group B (6.7%) was less than that in the group C (36.4 %), but the difference was not statistically different (P=0.058). The operation time of the three groups was 122.0 ± 39.4 min, 130.3 ± 42.5 min, and 142.3 ± 40.8 min respectively with no statistical difference between the two groups (P>0.05). The rate of dissection grade in the group B (grade 1, 12 patients, 80%) was significantly greater than that in the group A (grade 1, 14 patients, 43.8%,P<0.05). The effective rate of the group A, the group B, the group C was 84.4%, 93.3% and 90.9%, respectively with no statistical difference between groups (P>0.05). Conclusion The thoracoscopy combined mediastinoscopic thymectomy not only has the advantages of less trauma, quicker recovery and fewer complications, but also can more thoroughly clean the thymus and adipose tissue, which can achieve the same therapeutic effect as the transsternal thymectomy.
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease with indefinite pathogenesis. MG is closely related to thymic diseases, and thymectomy is an important way for MG treatment. However, there are some controversies regarding thymectomy, including indications, operation opportunities, operative procedures, surgical approaches, perioperative managements, and efficacy evaluations, etc. Therefore, based on the literature and the experience of Chinese experts, this consensus has been written after careful discussion and inquiry and 29 recommendations have been made, aiming to guide surgical treatment of MG and improve the clinical outcomes.
ObjectiveTo analyze the surgical efficacy and influencing factors of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients with thymic atrophy after thymectomy. MethodsThe clinical data of MG patients with thymic atrophy undergoing thymectomy between October 2014 and May 2018 in Daping Hospital of Army Medical University and Shijiazhuang People Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. ResultsA total of 71 patients were collected, including 40 males and 31 females with a mean age of 45.17±12.42 years. All patients received the surgery successfully. After the surgery, 20 (28.17%) patients were stable remission, 12 (16.90%) patients were minimal manifestation status,19 (26.76%) patients were improved, 5 (7.04%) patients showed no change, 3 (4.23%) patients were worsened, 10 (14.08%) patients were exacerbated and 2 (2.82%) patients were dead. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the preoperative illness duration (OR=4.61, 95%CI 1.13-18.85, P=0.03), and postoperative pyridostigmine combined with immunosuppressive (OR=0.12, 95%CI 0.03-0.45, P=0.00) were independent risk factors for long-term efficacy of thymectomy for MG patients with thymic atrophy. ConclusionEarly surgery after diagnosis of MG and postoperative pyridostigmine combined with immunosuppressive treatment is beneficial to the prognosis of MG patients with thymic atrophy.
Myasthenia gravies is a common disease in the clinic. Extended thymectomy is an important way to treat myasthenia gravis. Median thoracotomy, thoracoscopy, and robots are important surgical methods. Da Vinci robot-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is more and more widely used in extended thymectomy, with high surgical safety and good stability. The surgical approach includes intercostal approach, subxiphoid approach, etc. Different surgical approaches have their own advantages, and their surgical effects are different. This article introduces the indications, technical steps, and effects of da Vinci robot-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, analyzes the advantages and limitations of treating myasthenia gravis, and looks forward to its development prospects.