1.Department of Thoracic Surgery, 2.Department of Neurology,3.Department of Cadre Ward of The PLA Rocket Force Characteristic Medical Center, Beijing 100088, China.
Abstract：Objective To explore the long term results of two types of minimally invasive thymectomy(MIT) for myasthenia gravis(MG).Methods Fifty patients diagnosed with MG underwent video-assisted and robotic-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy between June 2010 and June 2014 and were followed up till June 2018. The perioperative results of the two groups were analyzed by χ2 test, and the long term effects were evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test.Results All the patients underwent minimally invasive thymectomy smoothly, with no conversions to thoracotomy or death. A total of 4 cases (8.0%) encountered myasthenic crisis. After 73.3 months of follow-up, the complete remission rate and overall effective rate were 34% (17/50) and 86.0% (43/50) respectively, and there was no significant difference between the two groups. According to Osserman’s criteria, patients classified as type Ⅰ displayed a significant higher effective rate than other groups by univariate analysis. No significant difference was found in the remission rate according to the gender, age, pathology, surgical procedures and the duration of symptoms.Conclusions Video-assisted and robotic-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy are both safe and feasible for MG patients and may bring about equally favorable prognosis.
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2019, Vol. 30 
