Strategies to shorten the duration of mechanical ventilation in patients with post-thymectomy myasthenic crisis / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To identify the clinical and demographical features that may impact the duration of mechanical ventilation(DMV) in the patients with post-thymectomy myasthenic crisis(PTMC).Methods Reviewed the patients who had PTMC from June 2008 to November 2015.Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to identify potential prognostic factors that may impact DMV and long-term survival,respectively.One-way ANOVA analysis was used to compare the four groups with continuous variates.Statistical powers were calculated by using XLSTAT.Results In total,seventy patients with PTMC were enrolled.Alcoholic abuse,high MGFA classification and Clavien-Dindo classification were the critical factors that remarkably delayed early extubation.Postoperative lung infection(PLI) as sole complication did not prolong DMV as compared to those without any complication,however,PLI with other more severe complications requiring at least pharmacological treatment seemed to remarkably prolong DMV,as compared to those without any complication.Conclusion Preoperative abstinence,proper treatment of MG and postoperative complications can decrease the incidence of PTMC,shorten the use of ventilator time and improve the prognosis of patients.